VALTTERI Bottas hailed one of his best races as Williams’s one-stop strategy paid off with their first Formula 1 podium of the season.

The Finn, who qualified seventh for the Grove-based team, came home third at Sunday’s Canadian Grand Prix.

Key to the result was the decision to change tyres just once, while the majority of the field came in twice.

Bottas, whose last top-three finish came in Mexico nine races ago, felt it would go down as one of his finest drives.

He said: “This gives us a big motivation boost for the next few races.

“I think it shows that we are a strong team who can deliver good results.

“Our strategy was great and our pit-stop was really good, yet again. It was definitely one of my best races.”

The only sour note for Williams was they were not celebrating a strong double points finish, with Felipe Massa forced to retire midway through the race in Montreal.

Rob Smedley, the team’s head of performance engineering, said: “Felipe would have finished anywhere from fourth to sixth so that’s a lot of points we’ve lost there with the water system issue that caused the temperatures to rise.”

The Williams team are in good spirits ahead of this weekend’s first Azerbaijan in Baku.

Bottas said: “I’ve never been to Azerbaijan, so it should be interesting.

“The track, from what we have seen, looks nice and very quick.”