Max Verstappen claimed victory at a remarkable Emilia Romagna Grand Prix where Lewis Hamilton twice sustained damage and a crash involving Mercedes team-mate Valtteri Bottas prompted a red flag.
An epic race encouraged optimism for a genuine title tussle in Formula One in 2021, with drama right from the outset and Hamilton fighting hard to rescue a superb second-placed finish.
The defending champion had started from pole, with Verstappen qualifying in third, behind Red Bull colleague Sergio Perez.
But Verstappen claimed the lead from Turn One in the rain at Imola, racing up alongside Hamilton and forcing his championship rival wide, where he sustained right wing damage.
While chaos ensued behind them, Hamilton held off Charles Leclerc to ensure he remained the biggest threat to Verstappen, with a tactical battle briefly allowed to develop.
Verstappen pitted first on lap 28, with Hamilton following a lap later and coming out behind the Dutchman following a slow stop.
But a manic spell then shook up the race again. First, Hamilton ran off into a gravel trap and desperately sought to reverse back onto the track.
The Briton was limping back to the pit lane a lap down under a shower of sparks, emitted by his Silver Arrow, when a further incident brought out the safety car.
Bottas collided with Mercedes prospect George Russell, driving for Williams, and both cars crashed in spectacular fashion, with the drivers emerging from the wreckage to angrily blame one another over the team radio.
The red flag soon followed, with wreckage spread across the track and a 30-minute suspension required, giving Hamilton time to regroup.
He resumed from ninth, able to unlap himself, with Verstappen forced to build a healthy lead again from Lando Norris after a slightly nervy restart.
Verstappen had retired at each of the three Italian races in 2020 but avoided a similar fate this time and the focus in the closing stages was instead on Hamilton's progress.
The Mercedes man picked off his opponents one by one, eventually streaking past Leclerc to move into position for a podium place once more.
Only Norris in the McLaren stood between Hamilton and a phenomenal P2 and he patiently chased down his compatriot to limit the damage and somehow emerge from this race a point ahead of Verstappen.
'AN UNFORTUNATE INCIDENT'
As the race got back underway following his crash, Russell posted on Twitter: "Thanks for all the messages. I'm fine, just disappointed.
"At the end of the day, it's an unfortunate incident. You're entitled to defend your position. But at 330kph, you have to respect the speed and the conditions when doing so. Gutted for the team. They deserved more today."
That was the second crash that ruled a driver out, with Nicholas Latifi earlier colliding with Nikita Mazepin to almost instantly exit the grand prix.
The subsequent safety car brought its own share of incident – Perez hit with a 10-second penalty after running wide and overtaking two cars to recover fourth.
Mick Schumacher went into a wall under the safety car, meanwhile, and lost his front wing.
TONE SET BEFORE THE START
The weather was always likely to cause havoc and the drivers took to the track to test their tyres ahead of the race. Even that did not go smoothly.
Fernando Alonso crashed into the wall, while the brakes on the Aston Martin cars caught fire.
That issue meant Sebastian Vettel had to start from the pitlane, and he was later given a 10-second stop/go penalty, too, for failing to have his wheels fitted in time.
Bottas sustained a puncture on his way to the grid and then Leclerc span on the formation lap. It was one of those days.
Norris 'not comfortable' despite setting pace in Belgium practice
Lando Norris admitted he was "not comfortable" despite being fastest in the Belgian Grand Prix second practice.
McLaren finished first and second on Friday, with Norris finishing just 0.215 seconds ahead of team-mate Oscar Piastri.
Max Verstappen finished third, but despite an impressive performance, his 10-place grid penalty will affect his result.
Norris finished second in the Hungarian Grand Prix last week, behind Piastri, in a race overshadowed by a radio spat between the Brit and the pit wall.
Having put that behind him, even after a confident practice session on Friday, Norris is not willing to rest on his laurels with Red Bull showing their threat.
"Red Bull are very quick at the minute," Norris said. "So, tricky, but I've just not felt very comfortable today with the car.
"So hopefully I just wake up [on Saturday] and feel a bit more comfortable with it. But we'll try and improve a few things and see again.
"I know it looked good on the timesheets, but I've not felt super comfortable in just going out and doing it. So, hopefully, I can just get in a bit more of a rhythm and feel a bit better out there."
Meanwhile, Lewis Hamilton finished in 10th after struggling to match the pace set in the second session.
Mercedes have been credited for their improvement in recent weeks, with Hamilton winning at Silverstone before finishing third at Hungaroring last Sunday.
However, he was also left disappointed on Friday and said he was hoping for the forecast rain over the rest of the weekend to give the team more of an edge.
"It was a pretty bad day," Hamilton said.
"I don't really know what to say! Obviously, it's been feeling great in the past couple of races, but it just felt completely different today.
"We worked on it. The first session was not great, but then in the second session we made some changes, and it started off great, and then when I got to the soft tyre I just couldn't improve and there were a bunch of balance issues we had through the lap.
"It was better through this session, but everyone else went even better. So, to be 1.2s behind is not great.
"If it rains, then that opens it up a little bit and, hopefully, we can do a better job. I think the car should be better in the wet than it is in the dry."
Perez '100% certain' of Red Bull stay after Belgian Grand Prix
Sergio Perez is confident he will still be at Red Bull after this weekend's Belgian Grand Prix regardless of the result.
There has been a lot of speculation over the Mexican's future in recent weeks following a series of poor results at recent races, despite him signing a two-year extension with the team just last month.
Since coming fourth at the Miami Grand Prix in May, Perez's best finish has been seventh, both in Austria and Hungary, and he failed to advance beyond Q1 in four of the last six races.
His drop in form has allowed McLaren to close the gap to Red Bull in the constructors' championship to just 51 points.
With the four-week break soon approaching, both RB driver Daniel Ricciardo and Red Bull's reserve driver Liam Lawson have been linked with Perez's seat.
However, the 34-year-old is certain he will still be competing alongside Max Verstappen when the season resumes.
"I am 100% sure," Perez said.
"Because I know basically what's in my contract and I know what the team trusts in me. And I know where is the main focus, which is on delivering on the track.
"It's no different to what it was in Hungary or [at the first race] in Bahrain or how it will be in Zandvoort or the rest of the year," Perez said.
"Every single weekend we've got to deliver the maximum, especially now that, with McLaren catching up in the constructors, it's really important to put everything together if we can achieve it.
"I'm not worried about it. Like I said, I know where I stand. That's not my concern. My only concern I have is to get my season back on track. The rest, I'm pretty chilled about."
McLaren to discuss whether to prioritise Norris over Piastri, says Brown
McLaren chief executive Zak Brown has said meetings will take place to discuss whether to prioritise Lando Norris over Oscar Piastri for the remainder of the season.
The issue arose following last week's Hungarian Grand Prix, which saw Piastri's maiden win in Formula One overshadowed by Norris' radio spat with the pit wall.
Piastri had led much of the race before a bizarre pit-stop call by McLaren allowed Norris to take the lead, but was ordered to give the lead back to his team-mate.
Norris initially refused to do so, but with three laps remaining, handed the place back to the Australian as McLaren secured a first one-two since Monza in 2021.
Piastri's win at the Hungaroring made him the seventh different winner in 2024. It is the 16th different year with at least seven winners, the first since 2012 (eight).
But one of Norris' protestations before giving the position back was his battle with Max Verstappen in the Driver's Championship.
Despite scoring his eighth podium of the season in Hungary, the Brit remains 76 points behind the three-time world champion.
Brown, who wasn't on the pit wall in Hungary but is back for this weekend's Belgian Grand Prix, said the decision would ultimately fall to team principal Andrea Stella.
He told Sky Sports F1: "That's ultimately going to be Andrea's call. We want to get through the first half of the season, see where we end up this weekend.
"I think the Constructors' Championship, while it's definitely not going to be easy, is well within reach.
"I think the challenge on the drivers' front is Max's bad days are second and third places, so (it's difficult) to make those claw backs that we're making on the constructors' that we can do because (Sergio) Perez is struggling at the moment, we also know he's capable of turning it on at any moment.
"That will be something I think we discuss over the summer break."
McLaren's recent pace and form has seen them have a driver on the podium in the last nine races, cutting the gap to Red Bull in the Constructor's Championship.
The British team have another excellent opportunity to cut the gap in Spa, with Norris' championship rival Verstappen receiving a 10-place grid penalty for Sunday's race by exceeding his engine allowance for the season.
But the Dutchman topped the first practice on Friday, with Piastri finishing 0.531 seconds behind with Norris down in ninth, 0.512secs off his McLaren team-mate.
And Verstappen's showing has left Brown refusing to rule out the possibility of the three-time world champion claiming an eighth win of the season.
"It's a tricky track with how much downforce you want versus speed," Brown said.
"You have to assume Max is on for pole, which is P11.
"It would be a big mistake to think he can't go from P11 to P1 but we have to take every advantage you can."
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