Sainz describes points for Williams in Chinese Grand Prix as a 'mini victory for us'

Carlos Sainz believes a points finish in the Chinese Grand Prix last weekend was like a "mini victory for us" as Williams continue to struggle for performance at the start of the 2026 season.

Having failed to advance beyond the first stage of Qualifying for the second event in succession, Sainz lined up only P17 for Sunday's 56-lap race at the Shanghai International Circuit.

An early pit stop and a number of high-profile retirements ahead, including non-starts for both the McLarens of Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris as well as Red Bull's Max Verstappen late stoppage, meant Sainz was able to finish ninth.

It marked the first points for Williams in 2026, the team having found themselves towards the back of the field at the start of the new regulations era.

"You can call it a mini win, mini victory for us," said Sainz. "Just another mega start, got ourselves into the points early on and then was all about managing the one-stop to the end and see if people would start making mistakes.

"Our pace is still not good, not good enough for points, but by doing everything else well we managed to bring home a P9, which honestly for us right now, it tastes like gold.

"We will keep digging, I hope this serves a bit as motivation for the whole team to dig deep and see if we can bring performance to the car soon."

While Sainz was able to bring some positivity to Williams, team mate Alex Albon endured a difficult weekend having been unable to even start the Grand Prix due to a technical issue.

"Some form of hydraulic issue," said Albon, who had been due to start P18. "To be honest, just a huge list of issues this weekend. We don't really understand, we need to do better as a team.

"I think it's frustrating but silver lining, Carlos got a couple of points which is important for us and that means a lot.

"We need to understand what's going on with the car. I think we've had a huge list of reliability problems. We just need to understand what is the car actually doing."