Valtteri Bottas hopes his podium in Canada will be a springboard to better things for Williams and praised his team for a "dynamic" strategy which helped him finish third.
Williams has slipped behind Ferrari in the pecking order this season and much of the talk this weekend was about the Italian outfit's chances of taking the fight to Mercedes. However, a troublesome qualifying for Sebastian Vettel and a mid-race spin for Kimi Raikkonen played into the hands of Valtteri Bottas, who turned in a faultless drive from fourth on the grid to the podium.
Bottas thinks the result will be a huge lift for the team, which last finished on the podium at the 2014 finale in Abu Dhabi.
"We really needed this result," Bottas said. "Like last year, we saw it really boosts the confidence. We know again now we are a top team and that we can fight for podiums. From Austria, with the package we have coming there, from then onwards we hope we can at least repeat these kind of results."
The Finn was full of praise for the calls made from the Williams pit wall throughout the afternoon.
"I'm really happy for us as a team, a really proud member of this team and it was really good teamwork all weekend. The mistake Kimi made allowed us to get one position and we also changed the plan with the strategy which I thought was really dynamic, so really good job from the team. It was not a bad race from me either."
Asked if he could have finished third without Raikkonen's spin, he replied: "That's really difficult to say but sure it helped us and it was good that we weren't that far away from the beginning to Kimi, so we could always put pressure.
"We also managed to change strategy half way through the race. That was really down to the team, they did really good work today and being aware of all the things happening around us and in front. So really, really pleased that we can finally compete with Ferrari. I'm sure it's a big boost for the whole team."