Carlos Sainz claimed his maiden podium with Williams at the Azerbaijan GP, and his former teammate, Charles Leclerc, was one of the first ones to congratulate the Spaniard on the stellar result. Sainz had started the race on the front row and was able to retain a podium finish, despite threats from faster cars behind.The 31-year-old joined Williams on a multi-year basis in 2025, as he had to make way for Lewis Hamilton at Ferrari. While the Grove-based squad is not regarded as the world champion outfit that it used to be, Sainz joined the team to build the team from the ground up on a long-term project.However, his start to the 2025 campaign did not go in his favor as he had amassed 16 points in the first 16 race weekends, while his teammate, Alex Albon, had accumulated a massive 70 points in the same time frame. But, it was all not to Sainz's pace as he had missed out on scoring points for one reason or another, which was out of his bounds.This all changed at the Azerbaijan GP, as he started from the front row en route to finishing P3 at the end of the 51 laps. With the Spaniard ecstatic on his achievement, he was also congratulated by fellow drivers, including Leclerc, who swiftly ventured over to his former teammate soon after getting out of his car:Moreover, when asked in a post-race interview about his thoughts on Carlos Sainz's podium, Leclerc told the media, including SK:"I’m really happy for him. Obviously we are travelling to basically all the races together, so we've had time to talk and he's been so unlucky since the beginning of the year and I don't think it was ever a lack of speed or whatsoever. I think it was more a fortune thing, which luckily today he overcame and I'm very happy to see him on the podium."Carlos Sainz brought the Williams name back on the podium after three years, as the last such driver to do so was George Russell at the shortened 2021 Belgian GP.Carlos Sainz was on top of the moon after claiming his first podium with WilliamsWhile Alex Albon has scored the majority of the points for Williams, Carlos Sainz was the flag bearer in Baku. Overjoyed with his result after the end of the 51 laps, the 31-year-old reflected on his race and said on the F1TV broadcast:"Honestly, I cannot describe how happy I am, how good this feels. Tastes even better than my first-ever podium that I did... We didn't make one mistake and managed to beat a lot of cars I didn't expect to beat."Meanwhile, Williams' team principal, James Vowles, also revealed that he wanted Sainz to excel with the team, as he said in a post-race interview:"I'll even take it a further, I've wanted him [Carlos] basically having a great result. Since the beginning of the year, you could see it coming, but it never come together for one reason or another."This podium has helped Carlos Sainz to move up to 12th in the drivers' standings after staying in the bottom half for the majority of the year.