Sainz grabs brilliant podium for Williams in Qatar despite late scare

Carlos Sainz delivered a sparkling performance under the Lusail floodlights on Sunday night in Qatar, racing to third place and claiming his second podium of the 2025 season with Williams.

It was a drive filled with composure, confidence and late-race courage – an effort that electrified the paddock and sealed a major milestone for the iconic Grove team.

From the moment the lights went out, Sainz showed he was ready to turn a difficult-looking weekend into something far more special. And by the time he crossed the line, even he sounded amazed at just how high the team had climbed.

“I’m so happy, so proud of the whole team for what we’ve done today,” he said after the race.

“We came into this weekend thinking it was going to be the most difficult weekend of the year, and suddenly we came out of it with a podium.

“We nailed the race pace – I was super quick, much quicker than expected. We nailed the strategy, we nailed the tyre management, nailed the start, nailed all the defending and that brought us an unexpected podium so I could not be prouder.”

A Rapid Start and a Perfect Call

Sainz was the only Williams driver to reach Q3, lining himself up for a strong haul of points. But Lap 1 made it clear something bigger was possible. As Isack Hadjar and George Russell stumbled, Sainz pounced, climbing to fifth and setting the tone for the night.

Williams then made the pivotal decision of the race: calling Sainz into the pits under the Safety Car. A slick stop vaulted him ahead of Kimi Antonelli, whose own delay opened the door. At a circuit where overtaking remains notoriously tricky, that leap was golden.

From there, Sainz controlled the pace beautifully – even as strategy differences shuffled the field and left him ahead of Lando Norris, who was charging hard on fresher tyres after a later stop.

A Frightening Final-Lap Fight

Despite how assured Sainz looked from trackside, the final laps were far more dramatic inside the cockpit. With ten laps to go, he was pushing flat-out to stay clear of Antonelli – but then something suddenly went wrong.

“Ten laps to go I decided to push flat-out because we were saving the tyres to keep Antonelli at bay,” he explained.

“Once they told me Lando was going to pass Antonelli, I was like ‘we need to open the gap to Lando as much as possible’ to see if they get into a fight. Five laps to go, something broke on my car, in the front-end.

“I don’t know if a piece of front wing fell off or something on the tyre. I lost massive front-end in the high-speed and medium-speed. Turning right, actually on the straights, the steering wheel was like this and turning right it wouldn’t turn.

“Turning left would be fine. Lando caught up on me in the last two laps quite a bit, losing 0.5s of race pace. To be honest, today was controlled but at the same time pushing because I was around cars that were much quicker than me today.”

• Read also: Team Talk – Sunday night in Qatar

With a car refusing to steer properly to the right and Norris closing rapidly, Sainz somehow held firm. The McLaren made it into DRS range on the final lap, but the Williams driver’s sheer commitment – and his earlier racecraft – proved untouchable.

He crossed the line to secure a joyous and hard-earned third place, his first podium since Baku and one of the most dramatic of his Williams tenure.

A Landmark Night for Williams

Sainz’s podium didn’t just energize the team – it cemented a major achievement. Williams is now guaranteed fifth in the Constructors’ Championship with one round still to go, their best seasonal result since 2017.

The Spaniard also etched his own mark in the team’s recent history, becoming the first Williams driver since Felipe Massa and Valtteri Bottas in 2015 to take multiple podiums in a single year.

For a team on the rise and a driver embracing his role at the center of their revival, Qatar was more than just a celebration – it was a milestone that hinted at even greater things ahead.

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