Valtteri Bottas upstaged his Mercedes world champion team-mate Lewis Hamilton on Sunday to win the season-opening Australian Formula One Grand Prix in a sizzling performance that he called his "best ever".
The flying Finn started second on the grid but got a jump on the polesitting Briton at the first corner and never looked back, scorching round the Albert Park circuit to take the chequered flag a massive 20.9 seconds ahead of Hamilton.
Red Bull's precocious Max Verstappen came third to join them on the podium after audaciously overtaking Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel midway through the race.
"How about that! Yes!" said Bottas over the team radio after also taking the new bonus point for the fastest lap.
Four-time world champion Vettel had to settle for fourth, trailing in 57.1 seconds behind Bottas. Ferrari partner Charles Leclerc was fifth, with Kevin Magnussen in a Haas sixth.
Frustrated Hamilton
Bottas, whose last triumph was at the Abu Dhabi season finale in 2017, was overshadowed last year by Hamilton, failing to win a race, hampered by mechanical problems and bad luck but was fast in qualifying and only narrowly edged out of pole position.
"In the beginning it was all about managing the race and building the gap," Bottas said. "I knew I could do it, I've done it before, it was about being at my best level."
Bottas, now in his third year with Mercedes, knows he must perform with promising Frenchman Esteban Ocon, 22, waiting in the wings as the team's reserve driver. He delivered in spades on Sunday for his fourth Grand Prix win in his 119th race.
Starting on soft tyres on a fine day, Bottas got an electric start and built a gap of 1.153 seconds on Hamilton after the opening lap, with Vettel, Verstappen and Leclerc trailing in their wake.
The gap kept growing, the battle was on for second, with Verstappen hounding Hamilton but unable to find a way through.
"I had to overtake Sebastian to get onto podium which is not easy here but was happy to pull that move off," said Verstappen, who was ecstatic at beating the Ferraris.
The Italian team's performance will be a source of worry, especially as they haven't won the constructors' title since 2008 and their last driver to become world champion was Kimi Raikkonen in 2007.
In contrast, Mercedes and Hamilton have been dominant, winning the drivers' and constructors' titles five years in a row.
It was also a day to forget for local hero Daniel Ricciardo in his first race for Renault after switching from Red Bull.
He lost his front wing after running onto the grass before the first corner and had to pit for a new nose. He finally retired on lap 30 of the 58-lap race.
The next Grand Prix is in Bahrain on March 31.
