Michael Schumacher showed that Ferrari's Imola win was no fluke here Sunday as he capitalised on a perfect pit-stop strategy to win the European Grand Prix in front of his home crowd.
The German's fifth win at his local circuit came after he stayed out three laps longer than world champion Fernando Alonso at the second round of pit-stops and put in three stunning laps to overhaul the Renault driver and win by 3.7 seconds.
In doing so, the seven-times drivers' world champion cut Alonso's lead in the standings to 13 points.
Alonso, 24, and 37-year-old Schumacher were never more than 1.5 seconds apart before making their first fuel and tyre stops on laps 17 and 18, from which the order remained unchanged.
But Schumacher's crucial second pit-stop took just 6.8 seconds, two seconds less than Alonso's, and combined with his in-laps, gave the German a comfortable lead when he exited the pits and he went on to take his 86th win.
Alonso could not stay with Schumacher in the closing stages and slipped into the clutches of Schumacher's Brazilian team-mate Felipe Massa who stayed behind to take his first podium finish in third, and McLaren's Finn Kimi Raikkonen who took fourth.
Behind them, Rubens Barrichello took his best finish since joining Honda in fifth ahead of Alonso's Italian Renault team-mate Giancarlo Fisichella and Williams' German Nico Rosberg who started last.
Jacques Villeneuve completed the points in eighth for BMW Sauber. A first-corner incident caused the retirement of Toro Rosso's Vitantonio Liuzzi on the first lap as he was hit by Ralf Schumacher and then went into the side of David Coulthard's Red Bull.
Liuzzi, 24 sustained a broken nosecone and a right-rear puncture - putting him out when the tyre burst at turn 10 - and forcing the deployment of the safety car for one lap while the Toro Rosso was removed.