REPORT: Ten Points Secured in 2025 Dutch GP

Alex Albon took his fourth P5 finish of the 2025 campaign to add 10 more points to Atlassian Williams Racing's World Constructors' Championship campaign after a stop-start Dutch GP.

Split fortunes in the team saw Alex gain an impressive 10 positions over the 72 laps with an overtaking blitz on the opening lap, while Carlos Sainz fell to P13 after contact with Liam Lawson.

Starting from P15, Alex had to drive on instinct as Gabriel Bortoleto suffered a slow start ahead.

Deftly dodging the Sauber, Albono perfectly navigated the Turn 1 traffic to fight forward and slot in behind Carlos' P9 FW47 by the banked Hugenholtzbocht corner.

Carlos had his own wheel-to-wheel battling against Liam Lawson, but could not pass the Racing Bulls driver in the opening corners, and the two Williams pilots settled into flying formation to chase down the New Zealander.

A mixture of starting tyres saw split strategies out there, with a threat of rain putting some on Softs in the hope of an early downpour.

Only light drizzle fell, and our decision to start on Mediums worked out, with Yuki Tsunoda falling further back behind Alex on Pirelli's red-walled compound.

Our opening pit stops came at the end of Lap 23 after Lewis Hamilton crashed at the Turn 3 exit to trigger the first of three Safety Car periods.

This is where Carbono's races diverged. Carlos had contact with Lawson on the restart when attempting to pass on the outside of Turn 1, while Alex overtook the yet-to-pit Esteban Ocon at the same corner.

Damage to Carlos' front wing demoted him to the back of the pack after pitting, and the stewards later issued our Spaniard a 10-second penalty for the incident to further hamper any hopes of points.

For Alex, his additional three places from the restart had him up to P7, but the pace of Mercedes' Andrea Kimi Antonelli soon left him chasing the Italian rookie while extending a gap to Lance Stroll behind.

The Mercedes in front then became George Russell, after the Silver Arrows instructed their drivers to switch positions, with Russell nursing damage after contact with Charles Leclerc.

Leclerc's Mercedes collisions weren't done, though, and a crash with Antonelli ended his Sunday in the barriers to cause the second Safety Car.

Carlos, who had just pitted and served his time penalty, could take the slowdown to return to the lead lap and give him an outside chance of points. Alex, meanwhile, was now P6 after Antonelli pitted for repairs and Leclerc retired.

A third and final Safety Car closed the pack up further as Lando Norris' McLaren suffered a mechanical failure. Carlos stopped for a fourth time to end his race on Softs to push to the flag.

With Alex in P5 and on the tail of Russell, Carlos was back in P17 and set for a busy final four laps. His quick racing saw overtakes on Gabriel Bortoleto and Pierre Gasly, and another position followed when Nico Hulkenberg drifted wide under pressure from our Spaniard.

Alex held firm to cross the line in P5, and multiple penalties for Antonelli handed a further position for Carlos, who earned a P13 classification after a spirited recovery from one lap down.

"Well done, Alex," was the call from Williams Team Principal James Vowles on the radio. "Really, really strong start, which has really made your day today. And you hung in there. A great race."

"Yeah, thank you, James," replied Alex. "I didn't expect that one. Sorry for Carlos."

James saw the benefits of Carlos' race also, saying, "Carlos, I'm sorry. It was a strong performance yesterday, strong in the race today.

"It's a racing incident for me more than anything else, but we'll come here where we talk about it and see what we do going forward.

"The important part is we have a quick car and we've got some races coming up to suit us, so head down, let's get going."

Alex jumped out of the car and shared his post-race thoughts:

"I think today was a perfect race. We had a really strong start and then there was a lot of crashes that helped us.

"I don't know why there was so much chaos, but we kept it clean and had a good race.

"We were hoping for rain, and in terms of race strategy it didn't look like it was going to be a fun race at all, but I think we made it for ourselves with that strong start.

"By being P10 by Lap 1, it put us in contention for the rest of the race. We kept it on track and picked up the pieces of what went on around us and got that P5.

"I'm happy to get some good points especially because with Isack finishing P3, it is important for the championship."

Carlos was frustrated after slipping back and summed up his Sunday by saying, "It’s tough coming back after the summer break to another race like this.

"I’ve been on form all weekend so to be involved in such an incident, that ultimately ruined my race and cost points for the team is incredibly frustrating.

"I was on the outside trying to put Liam off-line for the upcoming corners, but there was plenty of space and I didn’t do anything strange.

"The penalty, as far as I’m concerned, is inexplicable. We’ll review it with the stewards to understand how this decision was reached.

"Monza is around the corner, so we’ll regroup, keep focused and keep pushing."

James echoed the thoughts of both of his drivers:

"Well done to Alex. He made a brilliant start, putting himself right up behind Carlos and taking opportunities as they came his way.

"It was well executed by the team, the strategy and pit stops were on point, and it's great to see Alex getting really everything out of the package that we could today.

"Carlos didn't put a foot wrong this weekend. He qualified brilliantly and was racing at the front and I'm confident that without the incident with Lawson, he would have been in contention for P5.

"From my view, that was a racing incident and didn’t warrant a penalty. It’s something we’ll review with the FIA to understand better how we go racing going forward."