Chris Froome extended his advantage in the yellow jersey as Ilnur Zakarin won stage 17 of the Tour de France to Finhaut-Emosson.
After Katusha's Zakarin took stage honours up the road, Froome raced clear of his main rivals to build a cushion of almost two and a half minutes at the end of this 184.5-kilometres stage from Berne.
When BMC's Richie Porte attacked from the group of main contenders late on the final climb up to the Emosson Dam, only Froome could respond to join his former team-mate.
"Thank you to my team-mates, they've been super. This result is not a surprise for me. In the first week, I also tried to go for it" - Ilnur Zakarin
Behind Dutchman Bauke Mollema, who started the day second overall, was the first to be dropped, giving up 40 seconds to Froome.
But most encouraging of all for Team Sky will have been the sight of Quintana completely unable to respond as the attacks began.
The Colombian has usually come on strong in the third week of Grand Tours and threatened Froome's position in yellow late in last year's Tour, but does not appear to have the legs to rival him again.
As Froome crossed the line alongside Porte, Quintana was dropped by Adam Yates, who rode away to boost his hopes of a podium finish.
Ireland’s Dan Martin finished in 19th place, three places behind Quintana.
The provisional general classification showed Froome two minutes 27 seconds clear of Trek-Segafredo's Mollema with Yates, riding for Orica-BikeExchange, two minutes and 53 seconds back.
That puts the 23-year-old Briton 34 seconds clear of Movistar's Quintana in fourth.
Etixx-QuickStep rider Martin remains ninth overall – 5’ 50” off the pace of Froome.
Tipperary's Sam Bennett, who suffered a bad crash on the first stage, finished 170th today and remains bottom of the field.
Zakarin rode clear of stage 15 winner Jarlinson Pantano of IAM Cycling and Tinkoff's Rafal Majka in the king of the mountain's polka dot jersey to collect his first Tour de France stage win.
"I did my best today," the 26-year-old Russian said. "I'm really happy now. Thank you to my team-mates, they've been super. This result is not a surprise for me. In the first week, I also tried to go for it."
For Froome, who appears to be closing in on a third Tour victory, it was a near perfect scenario as he was pulled up the hill by Porte without needing to do a turn on the front himself ahead of Thursday's time trial.
"I don't think it was possible to go much faster there, Richie seemed to be doing just fine on his own," Froome said. "Tactically for me there is really no need to get on the front and start pulling on the final.
"Tomorrow is going to be crucial and this is the first day of a four-day block (in the Alps)."
While not writing off Quintana, Froome acknowledged that the man expected to be his strongest challenger here is not living up to his pre-race billing.
"It's been a very difficult Tour for Nairo," he said. "He's still a great rival and a big challenger for me but he lost more time today.
"I think for him to re-enter into the game again he's going to have to do a real good time trial tomorrow."
