Felipe Massa held off a first corner charge from Fernando Alonso to cruise to victory in the Spanish Grand Prix - but it is Lewis Hamilton who now has sole possession of the championship lead.
At the end of 65 laps at Barcelona's Circuit de Catalunya, Massa claimed his second successive race win, and fourth of his career with Ferrari to move up to third in the drivers' standings.
However, in claiming the runner-up spot for the third race in a row, Britain's rookie sensation Hamilton is the man at the head of Formula One's affairs.
The three-way tie for the lead between Hamilton, Alonso and Kimi Raikkonen coming into this race was always going to be split by its end.
Starting from fourth on the grid behind McLaren team-mate Alonso and Ferrari's Raikkonen, Hamilton perhaps would not have expected to have the outright lead - and so early in his career.
But with Alonso third and Raikkonen retiring early, Hamilton heads into the illustrious Monaco Grand Prix in a fortnight's time with a two-point cushion over Alonso and three to Massa.
The Brazilian finished 6.7 seconds clear of Hamilton, with Alonso disappointing a record 140,000 home crowd at this track with third, as he was a further 10.6secs adrift.
BMW Sauber's Robert Kubica claimed fourth, with Red Bull Racing's David Coulthard a superb fifth for his best finish since last August's Hungarian Grand Prix.
The Williams of Nico Rosberg and Renault's Heikki Kovalainen came in sixth and seventh, while Takuma Sato was eighth to give Super Aguri their first point since entering Formula One at the start of last year.
Overall, this was the seventh successive time in this grand prix the driver on pole had gone on to take the chequered flag.
It was almost so nearly different as the race started in dramatic fashion, and that after an extra formation lap was required due to an aborted start.
A problem with the Toyota of Jarno Trulli led to an additional formation lap - reducing the race to 65 laps overall - and with the Italian starting from the pit lane.
When the field pulled away at the second time of asking, Hamilton passed Raikkonen down the long straight to claim third.
But it was a wheel-to-wheel duel between Massa and Alonso that grabbed the attention as the Spaniard slipstreamed the Brazilian before pulling out to overtake around the outside heading into the first corner.
Alonso cut in, resulting in the two cars touching and the McLaren taking a brief journey onto the gravel, allowing both Hamilton and Raikkonen to pass.
Even then there was consternation, as a clearly rattled Alonso only just avoided ploughing into the side of his team-mate and the Finn as he returned to the track in fourth place.
Remarkably for this race there was an early raft of retirees, with Alexander Wurz the first after ploughing into the back of Toyota's Ralf Schumacher, smashing the nose of his Williams.
Red Bull Racing's Mark Webber pulled out on lap seven, then Trulli on lap eight before a major surprise on lap nine as Raikkonen next departed.
The Ferrari initially slowed and managed to limp back to the pits, only to pull straight into the garage with an electrical fault, so ending his hopes of vital points in the championship duel with the McLarens and Massa.
Scott Speed's race then ended in dramatic fashion as the Toro Rosso suffered a blown left rear tyre towards the end of the pit straight, just after crossing the line to start lap 10.
But in what was a quite remarkable event, the drama did not end there, sparked by Massa as he pulled away from his first pit stop.
As the refuelling hose left the car, a burst of flame trailed into the air from the fuel tank as Massa hit the accelerator.
Fortunately it died within seconds and did not cause any undue problems as he returned to the track in fourth, allowing Hamilton brief tenure of the lead before his own stop three laps later.
Following that, Jenson Button's miserable season continued for Honda as he lost his nose cone at the first corner after only just emerging from a pit stop, helping to relegate him to 12th by the end.
What made matters worse is that it was his own team-mate in Rubens Barrichello that caused the damage when Button filed in behind the Brazilian as they went into turn one.
Then, moments later, Nick Heidfeld lost the wheel nut of his front right tyre on his BMW Sauber as he pulled out of the pits.
The German stopped, sensing a problem, with the nut retrieved by one of Toyota's pit crew for the world to see as he had a camera trained on him at the time.
Heidfeld, though, inexplicably opted to pull away and back onto the track, but it was apparent the car was unstable.
That led to him tip-toeing around the circuit before pulling into the pits again for another tyre change - this time with the nut in place.
Following that moment the drama then eased, with Schumacher and Heidfeld joining the list of casualties late on, and with Massa coasting to success.
Spanish Grand Prix, Barcelona, 13 May 2007
Final Positions after 65 laps:
1. F Massa (BRA) Ferrari 1:31:36.230, 2. L Hamilton (GBR) McLaren-Mercedes @ 6.790secs, 3. F Alonso (ESP) McLaren-Mercedes 17.456, 4. R Kubica (POL)BMW Sauber 31.615, 5. D Coulthard (GBR) Red Bull 58.331, 6. N Rosberg (GER) Williams-BMW 59.538, 7. H Kovalainen (FIN) Renault 1:02.128, 8. T Sato (JPN) Super Aguri at 1 lap, 9. G Fisichella (ITA) Renault 1 lap, 10. R Barrichello (BRA) Honda) 1 lap, 11. A Davidson (GBR) Super Aguri 1 lap, 12. J Button (GBR) Honda 1 lap, 13. A Sutil (GER) Spyker 2 laps, 14. C Albers (NED) Spyker 2 laps.
Drivers standings:
1. L Hamilton (ENG) 30 pts, 2. F Alonso (ESP) 28, 3. F Massa (BRA) 27, 4. K Raikkonen (FIN) 22, 5. N Heidfeld (GER) 15, 6. R Kubica (POL) 8, 7. G Fisichella (ITA) 8, 8. N Rosberg (GER) 5, 9. D Coulthard (GBR) 4, 10. J Trulli (ITA) 4, 11. H Kovalainen (FIN) 3, 12. T Sato (JPN) 1, 13. R Schumacher (GER) 1
Constructors standings:
1. McLaren-Mercedes 58 pts, 2. Ferrari 49, 3. BMW Sauber 23, 4. Renault 11, 5. Williams 5, 6. Toyota 5, 7. Red Bull 4, 8. Super Aguri 1
