Max Verstappen displayed all his skill and verve to overtake Australian driver Oscar Piastri at the very first corner of the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix.
From that point on, he never looked back.
It was an imperious display from the Dutch driver, who helped Red Bull celebrate its 400th race weekend with a second race victory of the season and 65th of his career, despite seemingly having the second-fastest race car.
Even a late safety car could not deny Verstappen, who prospered as McLaren teammates Lando Norris and Piastri bickered over second.
Piastri, stranded on old tyres after his team opted not to pit him when the safety car was deployed, was a sitting duck for his teammate Norris, who swept past on the corner to claim second and reduce the gap at the top of the drivers world championship standings.
"Yeah, just braked to early," Piastri said of the superb move from Verstappen at the opening corner, acknowledging the the move was "good".
"I think we made a few wrong calls after that as well anyway," the Aussie added.
"Not our best Sunday. Definitely a lot of things to look at and review after that."
Piastri will rightly bemoan a sloppy strategy from McLaren, who pitted the Aussie early and was forced to weave his way through traffic on the notoriously tight Imola circuit.
But really, the race was lost at that first corner.
A late safety car, deployed after local boy Kimi Antonelli ditched his car on the side of the track, condensed the field and momentarily made the win seem less than certain for Verstappen.
However, Piastri, stranded on old tyres, held Norris up sufficiently up at the restart and by the time the Englishman got past, Verstappen was already way up the road.
The two McLaren's were allowed to fight for the position, with the pair coming thrillingly close to touching as Norris made his move.
"We had a good little battle between Oscar and myself," Norris said with a smile.
"Always tense but always good fun."
Piastri remains in control of the drivers world championship, leading Lando Norris by 13 points, with Max Verstappen 22 points off Piastri's tally in third.
"Double podium in Imola. Awesome work from Lando, Oscar, and the team both trackside and back home," McLaren team principle Zak Brown tweeted.
"Full focus now on Monaco."
Lewis Hamilton sent the local tifosi into raptures with a late surge into fourth place, although his teammate Charles Leclerc was left fuming after being told to return a hard-earned place back to William driver Alex Albon after he was judged to have pushed the Thai driver off the track — a charge he violently disagreed with.
The Monegasque driver will hope to make amends next week when the Formula 1 circus heads to the streets of Monaco in the second of three back-to-back races in Europe.
Look back on how all the action unfolded in our live blog.
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