Red Bull drivers Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez could party after their Imola 1-2 finish. Photo / Don Kennedy
Ferrari had hoped to continue its recent run of success in the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix held at the Autodromo Enzo a Dino Ferrari circuit, better known as Imola, named after Ferrari founder Enzo Ferrari.
But it wasn't to be, as the Red Bull team came to the party at Imola ready to win, and duly did, much to the disappointment of the Tifosi who made up the majority of the 64,000 large crowd.
Max Verstappen won the sprint race on the Saturday in his Red Bull by overtaking championship leader Charles Leclerc, which meant he started on pole position for the race run in wet conditions, and he would never be headed to record his 22nd GP victory, and his second in four races.
His record in four races is two wins and two DNFs, having lost second place in those other two races through mechanical issues.
Leclerc started second on the grid but was overtaken by the other Red Bull of Sergio Perez and the McLaren of Lando Norris. He would later reverse that position with Norris, but on lap 50 of 63, Ferrari opted to pit Leclerc for a second time so he could set the fastest lap and gain an extra point.
Later admitting he had got " too greedy", the move backfired when three laps later he spun into the wall trying to chase Perez. Luckily, he was able to resume, but dropped to eighth, and eventually finished sixth, lamenting the loss of seven points.
Lecler's teammate Carlos Sainz never got beyond the first chicane on the opening lap, where he was hit by the McLaren of Daniel Ricciardo after the latter slid off the kerb into the side of Sanz's Ferrari, ending the Spaniard's race.
He wasn't alone, as his countryman Fernando Alonso was hit by a spinning Mick Schumacher at the same chicane, putting a hole in the side of Alonso's car, ending his race.
Both Ricciardo and Schumacher would finish the race, but with their respective teammates Norris and Kevin Magnussen finishing third and ninth respectively, so it was a day both Ricciardo and Schumacher will want to forget. Ricciardo went to the Ferrari motorhome after the race to apologise to Sainz.
For Verstappen, victory in Ferrari's backyard, with Ferrari headquarters at Modena only 80km away, was as good as it could get.
He took maximum points in the sprint race and the race itself, and although he still trails Leclerc by 27 points in the championship, he was able to reflect on a Red Bull car that had both pace and reliability.
"Melbourne wasn't great for us and the start of the season in general wasn't amazing, so we needed a good weekend," Verstappen said.
"I didn't expect it to be like this but when you have a weekend at the end like this, that's incredible - a 1-2 for the team but also maximum points scored.
"Also, the way we handled the race, we didn't really make any mistakes and I think we made the right calls, switching from the inters to the slicks, and from then onwards we just controlled the race. It of course seemed probably easy on the TV, but you have to be focused."
Such has been the dominance of Mercedes, this was the first 1-2 finish for Red Bull since Malaysia 2016 when Ricciardo won that race from Verstappen. Given the latter won the world championship last year, you might think there would have been a 1-2 finish somewhere for Red Bull, but with Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton first and second in 12 races, they effectively shut out their teammates.
Perez was understandably delighted with the 1-2 which was underlined as the two drivers stepped on to the podium together.
"It was a tough race but an enjoyable one," Perez said. "Rule number one in these conditions is to finish. It was difficult because in these conditions it is easy to make a mistake and put a foot wrong, but we managed a clean race and kept out of trouble which was pretty important."
Red Bull team boss Christian Horner enjoyed this result after having to deal with the two DNFs his world champion suffered in Bahrain and Australia.
"This has to be one of our best ever results, to take maximum points across the whole weekend bar one, was incredible," Horner said.
"Both Max and Checo have driven brilliantly to secure our first 1-2 finish since Malaysia in 2016. I'm very proud of the entire team, from everyone at the track and those back at in the factory at Milton Keynes, they delivered a phenomenal performance, it's just what we needed to rebound from Australia.
"It's a long season and we'll take a lot of confidence from this result and try to build on it in Miami in a couple of weeks' time."
It was difficult for Leclerc to hide his disappointment after his mistake before the Tifosi.
"It's a big shame," he told Sky F1. "Whatever happened before the spin, these are details and it's part of racing.
"I believe the spin shouldn't have happened today. P3 was the best I could do. We didn't have the pace for much more and I was too greedy. I paid the price for it and lost seven potential points compared to my third place I was before.
"It's even seven points that are very valuable at the end of the championship for sure and this shouldn't happen again."
Norris on the other hand couldn't believe his good fortune in finishing third despite being some way behind Leclerc when he had his spin.
"Amazing race, amazing weekend to be honest," Norris stated. "I guess fourth would still have been an amazing position, amazing result for us and better than we were expecting coming into the race and into the weekend for sure."
The talking point post-race besides the Red Bull victory and Leclerc's spin, was the respective performances of the Mercedes drivers, George Russell and Lewis Hamilton.
The former finished fourth in the race and is fourth in the championship, whereas Hamilton finished 14th, albeit promoted to 13th due to Esteban Ocon getting a 5-second penalty for an unsafe pit line release during which he made contact with Hamilton.
Hamilton only finished 14th in the sprint race, so started the race from there, and despite Sainz and Alonso, who started ahead of Hamilton, retiring from the race, he was unable to improve his position, being stuck behind the Alpha Tauri of Pierre Gasly for most of the race. In addition, Hamilton had the embarrassment of being lapped by the race-winner.
"A weekend to forget, that's for sure," Hamilton told Sky F1.
"I'm out of the championship, for sure. There's no question about that. But I'll still keep working as hard as I can and try to pull it back together somehow."
After the sprint race, Hamilton and Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff appeared to exchange unpleasant words. Both later played down the incident, with Hamilton declining to discuss what was said, while Wolff admitted they had vented at one another.
"There was no disagreement at all," Wolff said at the time. "It doesn't go any closer than the two of us. We were just so angry about the session overall, him and I, and he vented at me, I vented at him, but it was absolutely about the same thing."
At the end of the race, Wolff was on the team radio apologising to Hamilton.
"Lewis, hi, sorry for what you have needed to drive today, I know this is undriveable and not what we deserved to score as a result. So, we'll move from there, but this was a terrible race."
"No worries, Toto," Hamilton replied. "Let's keep working hard."
Given Russell was able to finish fourth, questions were asked post-race as to what was really wrong with Hamilton.
One person who knows Hamilton better than most, having been his teammate for four seasons, is 2016 world champion Nico Rosberg. He was a guest commentator for Sky F1 for the race, albeit by video from his Monaco home, and wasn't buying into the excuses made.
"Here, Toto was playing the mental game, which is very smart, blame themselves, really trying to support Lewis mentally and saying it's not really your doing, this really is on us," Rosberg commented.
"But it's not quite the truth because remember Russell was in P4 with that same car. There was more in that car, so really Toto is trying to lift him up which is so important to try and make sure that Lewis keeps that motivation through the whole season, as it's quite easy for Lewis to lose it in these situations."
Russell, playing the team game, was not prepared to take credit for his fourth placing compared to Hamilton's misery.
"I'm relatively pleased to maximise the points available this weekend," he nonchalantly noted. "Whether we're getting the most out of the car is a different story and I do think things have fallen slightly in our favour with these first four races."
In regard to Hamilton, he said: "I expect him to come back so strong, and the way he's pushing and motivating the team is inspiring. I'm not getting comfortable with this position (21 points ahead) because I know what he's capable of."
Mercedes is still not completely out of it, but the championship is between Ferrari and Red Bull and for the drivers, between Leclerc and Verstappen. It is inevitable that their respective teammates, Sainz and Perez, will eventually be forced into support roles. But we've only had four races, and as both Ferrari drivers and Hamilton showed at Imola, in F1, anything can happen.