IMOLA -- Max Verstappen took his second victory of the season at Sunday's Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix as McLaren teammates Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri scrapped over second and third.
Verstappen took the lead of the race from Piastri in the first corner of the race and kept his calm following a late safety car period to seal the 65th grand prix win of his career.
"The start itself wasn't particularly great," Verstappen said afterwards, "but I was still on the outside line, the normal line, so I was like 'well I'm going to try and send it around the outside' and it worked really well.
"Of course, that unleashed our pace because when we were in the lead, the car was good. I could look after my tyres."
Championship leader Piastri, who started from pole position with the aim of extending a three-race winning streak to four, finished the race third after losing second place to Norris with five laps remaining.
On the first lap overtake, Piastri said: "I just braked too early. It was a good move by Max as well. Disappointing obviously but we made a few wrong calls after that anyway.
"Not our best Sunday, so definitely a lot of things to look at and review. Well done to Max and Red Bull. It was a good move and they had pace today."
A two-stop strategy and a poorly-timed virtual safety car (VSC) worked against Piastri in the first half of the race, but he was shuffled back up to second under a late safety car when Norris made a stop for tyres and he stayed out.
The differing strategies of the McLarens set up a showdown when the safety car returned to the pits with ten laps remaining, and Norris closed down Piastri and passed thanks to his fresher tyres.
The move was decisive by Norris and followed a similarly spectacular pass on George Russell earlier in the race.
The top three result helped close the gaps at the top of the championship, with Piastri's lead over Norris cut to 13 points and Verstappen now 22 points off the lead McLaren driver in the standings.
Take a look at the numbers from Max Verstappen's Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix win.
The points will be welcome, but Verstappen and Red Bull will take even greater comfort from the performance of the car, which appeared superior to McLaren just two weeks after Piastri and Norris took an untouchable one-two in Miami.
The next round of the championship will see the three drivers rejoin battle on the streets of Monaco.
Lewis Hamilton secured his best grand prix result since joining Ferrari at the start of the year with fourth place in front of the Italian team's home fans. The seven-time world champion started the race 12th after a poor qualifying showing, but good strategy calls and improved race pace saw him move through the field on Sunday.
Hamilton was aided to fourth by his teammate Charles Leclerc, who held fourth after the safety car but was on old tyres and trying to defend from Alex Albon's Williams with a handful of laps remaining.
As he covered the inside line at Turn 1 on Lap 60 of 63, Albon was forced across the gravel, allowing Hamilton to sweep ahead of the Williams. Albon went on to finish fifth, while Leclerc had to settle for sixth - seemingly irate at the way his afternoon played out.
Russell was the highest-placed Mercedes driver in seventh place despite starting the race in third. Like Piastri, he lost out by adopting a two-stop strategy early in the race and then lost positions at the end when he was caught on older tyres after the safety car.
Russell's teammate Andrea Kimi Antonelli failed to finish and caused the safety car when his Mercedes broke down on Lap 46.
Carlos Sainz finished eighth for Williams ahead of Isack Hadjar's Racing Bull in ninth and Yuki Tsunoda, who started from the pit lane following a qualifying crash, in tenth.