WILLIAMS were left encouraged by a more competitive showing in the Chinese Grand Prix despite another pointless Formula 1 weekend.

Lance Stroll finished 14th and Sergey Sirotkin 15th for the Grove-based team in Shanghai.

Although the results were still disappointing, progress had been made since the second race of the season in Bahrain a week earlier.

Stroll said: “It was a great start, I made up five or six positions.

“After that I believe we raced the maximum out of the car.

“I think the Force Indias were possible to beat, not on pure pace, but with the good start and everything.

“It was a bit of a shame, but I am really happy with the race.”

Sirotkin added: “It was a difficult race.

“I had nothing to lose, so I had to fight at the start.

“I tried to get some positions but when you’re right in the midfield it’s difficult to do something and I think I could have managed better.”

Meanwhile Grove’s Alex Lynn retired after 15 laps in the seventh round of the FIA Formula E Championship in Rome.

The DS Virgin Racing driver stopped at turn 10.

Mitch Evans was ninth for the Grove-prepared Panasonic Jaguar Racing team.