Williams rues lost opportunity for more points in Baku

Williams tech chief Paddy Lowe had mixed feelings after yesterday's Azerbaijan Grand Prix, believing the Grove-based outfit could have left Baku with more points than it achieved.

Lance Stroll delivered a good P8 finish to the British team, but Sergey Sirotkin's premature exit from the race on the opening lap clearly deprived Williams of an opportunity for extra points.

"It was very disappointing to lose Sergey at the start after a coming together with Alonso and Hulkenberg put an early finish to his race," said Lowe.

"As usual, we had a highly eventful afternoon with lots of incidents right to the very end, so it was great to get eighth position with Lance.

• Grosjean offers bizarre explanation for clumsy safety car crash

"I’m happy in one way but disappointed in another, because I think there were many more points possible for us today.

"Even so, it was a great drive by Lance, all weekend in fact. He kept the car in one piece which is actually one of the key things at this circuit.

"It is great to get our first points on the board this season and we need to keep this momentum going."

Stroll did indeed skillfully keep himself out of trouble in Baku. But the 19-year-old Canadian believes he should have put in an extra effort to fend off Fernando Alonso in the closing stages of the race.

"It was a crazy race. So much happened. I am pretty happy with the race, there were perhaps one or two more positions if we did everything perfectly, but no one had a perfect race today," he said;

"In that battle with Fernando at the end I think I should have held him there, but he surprised me into turn three.

"I didn't really see him coming back on the inside and he just managed to sneak through, but that was probably the only little bit we missed today.

"All in all, I am happy with P8 and it was a good race for the team. We can't assume this pace will carry on to Barcelona, we have to understand our issues and keep working but that is just what we are doing."

Gallery: The beautiful wives and girlfriends of F1 drivers

Keep up to date with all the F1 news via Facebook and Twitter