Rarely has a race, or a singular drive, stirred the emotions as did Kimi Antonelli's spectacular home triumph in Sunday's stunning and wildly-entertaining Italian Grand Prix.
It was a season-defining performance, a display foreseen by his team boss as a "walk on water" demonstration of pure talent.
AFP Sport looks at three talking points from a weekend of the unexpected at Monza where Ferrari fervor turned to Italian joy in celebration of a first home winner for 60 years:
- Antonelli: 'Generational genius' -
It was less about the history and the statistics, impressive as they are, but much more a show of precocious speed and talent as the boy from Bologna, who turned 20 two weeks ago, won from 19th on the grid.
In becoming the first Italian driver to win at Monza since 1966 -- to move 66 points clear of nearest rival and teammate George Russell in the title race -- he proved Italy still produces winners and champions.
Only a series of catastrophes in the remaining 10 races can prevent Antonelli becoming the first Italian to win the world title since Alberto Ascari in 1953.
This was Antonelli's seventh win this year, lifting him level with Russell, who was the pre-season favorite, in career victories, despite the Briton having made 128 more race starts.
As he said in the ecstatic aftermath of the race, as thousands of Ferrari fans, in a weekend record crowd of 403,666, thronged below the podium, this win "is great, but the best is yet to come".
Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff, who recruited Antonelli to his junior team and developed him as a protege of extraordinary potential, said he felt sure one of his two protagonists would win.
"I felt it on Saturday," he said. "I chatted with his father Marco. He saw it coming, too. I knew one of the two would win -- George, because he was at the front, or Kimi, because he was going to walk on water."
Antonelli took advantage of a red flag and a virtual safety car to pit twice for new tires while Russell did so only once, for hards, leaving him vulnerable on the final laps.
But, Wolff pointed out, it was something more than tires or tactics that took his curly-mopped youngster through the field to glory.
"I've seen it with other great ones in the past," said Wolff, who oversaw six of Lewis Hamilton's seven championship-winning seasons with Mercedes.
"When a driver and a car are as one, then there's just nothing that can stop them."
- Ferrari season in peril -
Ferrari's home flop ended with Hamilton sixth, conceding his title dream is over and pointing a finger at his team.
Poor strategy, which saw him not take advantage of the VSC deployment to fit new tires, saw him struggling on worn mediums, while a lack of "rules of engagement" resulted in an opening lap clash with teammate Charles Leclerc, who later crashed out.
"At Mercedes, we had written rules," said Hamilton. "And we never had it too bad.
"Here (at Ferrari), there are no rules. It needs to change."
He added that the team had prevaricated too long over asking Leclerc to support Hamilton in the title race. "It's way too late for that now."
- Verstappen proves point -
Max Verstappen's battling drive to take third behind both Mercedes, but ahead of the two McLarens, went some way in justifying his decision to extend his Red Bull contract and erase the pain of a first-lap crash two weeks earlier at his home Dutch Grand Prix.
"For us to be on the podium is, I think, a very strong result," he said after his fifth top-three finish of a difficult season that is yet to produce a win.
"Mercedes were clearly too strong for us but to be behind them after a very difficult weekend in Zandvoort is very positive for us."
