Carlos Sainz Jr. was reliefed to score points for the first time with McLaren and is delighted the team were able to demonstrate its potential with a double-points finish in Baku.
Sainz finished in P7 following a strong race, overtaking his team-mate Lando Norris with not long remaining in the race. This is the first time the Spaniard has been able to finish inside the top 10 for the Woking-based team following successive retirements in Australia and Bahrain, and a first-lap collision in China.
"On a personal level, this one is a bit of a relief," Sainz said to reporters following the Azerbaijan Grand Prix. "After three races where I had the pace I had today, but just for a reason I still don't understand three consecutive runs of back luck happened to us.
"Today, we didn't have any issues and we just demonstrated what we are capable of doing. We had great pace all weekend really. It was a shame that I couldn't use it yesterday in qualifying because of yellow flags, but today within eight laps, I was back to where I wanted to be which was attacking the Racing Point in front.
"Since then we showed really good pace, we were managing the tyres to the end behind Lando and (Sergio) Perez. That (Virtual) Safety Car gave Perez an extra half-a-second, second of lap time and we couldn't pass him, but in general we are very happy."
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