Vowles is "unbelievably proud" of Williams after the Melbourne race

Williams team boss James Vowles understandably sounded positive note when assessing his outfit's performance at Melbourne, highlighting the change the Grove-based outfit achieved compared to last year.

Having qualifying sixth on the grid, Alex Albon lost a place to Charles Leclerc at the start of the 57-lap Australian Grand Prix. The Thai driver was running seventh for much of the race, but made the right call to pit for inters once the rain arrived which catapulted him up to fourth.

In the closing stages of the race, Albon lost out late on to Mercedes rookie Kimi Antonelli, but his fifth-place finish was still a positive start to his season.

His team-mate Carlos Sainz endured a tough Sunday on a weekend when he displayed impressive speed across all practice sessions. The Spaniard spun off into the barriers on the very first lap after his car stepped out when he tried to get on the throttle.

Following the incident, the four-time F1 race winner took on the role of a strategist, and his input helped the team decide what calls to make with their other car.

Williams team boss James Vowles understandably sounded positive note when assessing his outfit's performance at Melbourne, highlighting the change the Grove-based outfit achieved compared to last year.

"What an incredible feeling! We reflect on where we were twelve months ago and it’s just a world of difference. Well done to Alex – a solid drive from start to finish, defending against really great drivers behind him and didn’t put a foot wrong.

"In the case of Carlos, it was tricky conditions out there, but we can see that as he did an upshift at a difficult time, on a difficult part of the track, the car spun.

"We need to look at that all together as clearly, we could have two cars in the points today. I’m unbelievably proud of this team and I can’t wait to get to Shanghai in just a few days. I’m looking forward to what we can do across the remainder of the season."