Both drivers produced clean, patient drives on a circuit where the team's lack of straight-line speed made overtaking and defending difficult. Nico held a place in the top ten before Carlos Sainz closed in and passed him on Baku's long straight, while Gabriel was unable to make significant progress through the field. The team now heads to Sepang for the Bahrain Grand Prix, where it will continue to optimise the new package introduced this weekend.

Allan McNish, Racing Director: "Our plan was always to go long and be ready to take advantage of any Safety Car: that helped us run in the points towards the end of the race, which would have been a small reward for all the effort the whole team put in overnight to fight back from a difficult qualifying. We did come close, but always knew this track would not fully suit our car. We leave Baku disappointed, but ready to go again in Sepang in a week's time, a track whose layout should better suit our car."

Nico Hulkenberg (Car 27):

Race result: 11th

Fastest lap: 1:46.850 (Lap 45)

Strategy & Pit Stops: Start (New Medium) - Lap 33 (New Soft)

"Points looked in reach for a bit, so it's disappointing to miss out. I was running in P10 towards the end, but the cars ahead started battling, which cost us some time and allowed Carlos to get into my tow. The Williams was very quick down the straight, and there wasn't much I could do to hold him back. That's been a bit the story of our weekend. We were missing straight-line speed, and around here that makes it difficult to make progress or defend. We take it on the chin and move on. We have a few days now to go through the data, understand the package better and see what we can get out of it next weekend."

Gabriel Bortoleto (Car 5)

Race result: 13th

Fastest lap: 1:46.336 (Lap 46)

Strategy & Pit Stops: Start (New Medium) - Lap 31 (New Soft)

"It hasn't been the easiest weekend, but the race itself was quite promising in terms of pace. The new package has been delivering, particularly in the middle sector, where the car felt quite strong. We had good pace behind the other cars, so it was encouraging to see that after some struggles on Thursday and Friday.

"The feeling wasn't the same on the straights, where we lacked pace. Still, while it's obviously not ideal to be outside of the points again, I am happy to see the moderate progress we made today: some positives we can take into the next race."