Carlos Sainz fires subtle dig at Lewis Hamilton after stunning Azerbaijan GP podium

Carlos Sainz has fired a subtle dig at Lewis Hamilton after securing his first podium for Williams. The Spaniard finished third in the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, coming in behind race-winner Max Verstappen and second-placed George Russell.

The 31-year-old was replaced by Hamilton at Ferrari for the 2025 Formula 1 season, with the Scuderia announcing that they had agreed a deal with the Brit as early as February 2024. Sainz would go on to secure his future the following July as he signed for Williams.

Both drivers have admittedly found things tough in their new surroundings though, with both enduring frustrating seasons so far. Retiring in his Williams debut in Melbourne, Sainz had recorded six points finishes so far this season prior to this weekend’s race in Baku - with eighth place finishes in Saudi Arabia and Imola his joint-best returns.

Meanwhile, while Hamilton won the sprint race in China in only his second outing for Ferrari, he is yet to finish on the podium with the Italian constructor. Instead, his best finish remains fourth - recorded in Imola, Austria and at Silverstone - with the seven-time champion recently finishing outside the points in Hungary and crashing out in the Netherlands.

It was another frustrating race for Hamilton in Baku as, having qualified 12th, he finished in eighth place. Meanwhile, there was controversy on the last lap as he failed to slow down enough to return his place to team-mate Charles Leclerc despite team orders.

It did not go unnoticed amongst fans that Sainz had managed to claim his first podium with Williams before Hamilton had managed to with Ferrari. And after his third-place finish, Sainz could not help but fire a subtle dig in the direction of his replacement at Ferrari as he defended his own record this season.

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“Out of all the drivers who have changed teams, I have been the one who adapted best to the car,” he told Sky Sports. That came after he had said: "Honestly, I cannot describe how happy I am, how good this feels. It's even better than my first ever podium. We've been fighting hard all year and finally today we just proved that, when we have the speed – and we've had it all year – everything comes together and we can do some amazing things together.

"Today, we nailed the race with not one mistake and we managed to beat a lot of cars that, yesterday, I was not expecting to beat. I'm extremely proud of everyone at Williams for pushing through an extremely difficult year. We've proven to everyone the massive step that we've taken compared to last year.

"We're on the rise, going in the right direction. Unfortunately, with me, we've had a lot of bad luck and incidents [which has made it] very difficult to convert that pace into results. But now I understand why it all happened, because the first podium needed to come like this.

"It's just life – life sometimes brings you those bad moments to give you a very nice one and this tastes much better than anything I was expecting. It's a life lesson, no? To keep believing, trusting yourself and the team around you, your procedures, everything you're doing because, sooner or later, it pays off."