In recent seasons Williams has often suffered in windy conditions, and that was evident on Friday, when Albon could manage only 14th in a gusty qualifying session.
He was only 17th in the hot conditions in Saturday afternoon's shootout, but he found extra pace come the evening sprint, and charged up to eighth place by the flag.
He then gained another spot when Charles Leclerc, who had finished immediately ahead of him, was penalised for consistent abuse of track limits.
The two points came at a crucial time for his team, with Haas, Alfa Romeo and AlphaTauri all still in contention for seventh place in the World Championship.
“Didn't expect it that's for sure,” said Albon when asked by Autosport if scoring in the sprint was a bonus. “And obviously it helped a little bit with the carnage, but [we were] super quick as well, honestly.
“Our relative pace, compared to where we have been this weekend, it was so much quicker, I think almost half a second to a second quicker than our average pace so far this weekend. So all helped by the wind, honestly, the wind has transformed our car by [it] dropping.
"[There was]a lot of management early in the stint, to not open up the tyre, and then I could push quite hard after that.”
Source: Autosport