VALTTERI Bottas ended Williams’s wait for a podium this season by finishing third at the Canadian Grand Prix.

The Finn, who qualified in seventh, drove an impressive race in Montreal to come home 46 seconds behind winner Lewis Hamilton and runner-up Sebastian Vettel.

It ended an eight-race barren run without a top-three finish for the Grove team which stretched back to the Mexico Grand Prix last November.

The result saw Bottas leapfrog teammate Felipe Massa to seventh in the drivers’ standings, after the Brazilian was forced to retire just after the halfway mark.

It also consolidated their fourth position in the constructors’ championship, behind Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull.

It was a race to forget for the county’s other teams.

Esteban Gutierrez and Romain Grosjean, from Banbury-based Haas, finished 13th and 14th respectively.

Kevin Magnussen was 16th, while his teammate at Enstone’s Renault outfit, Jolyon Palmer, retired on lap 17 due to a water leak.

The season continues next weekend with the first race to be held in Azerbaijan.