Kimi Antonelli overcame a fierce battle with Lando Norris to clinch a third successive victory and extend his title lead at a weather affected Miami Grand Prix.
The Italian ultimately got the better of Norris at the pit-stops and fended off the reigning champion to stretch his advantage in the standings to 20 points from Mercedes teammate George Russell.
The 19-year-old clinched victory in China and Japan to seize the initiative over his experienced teammate before an enforced five-week break after the cancellation of the Bahrain and Saudi Arabia races due to Middle East crisis.
His momentum was unaffected, bouncing back from a tricky sprint to land a third successive pole and race win - the first Italian to win three in a row since Alberto Ascari in 1952.
Norris, who triumphed in Saturday's sprint, re-emerged as a race-winning threat in his upgraded McLaren but could not reel Antonelli in.
Norris had a three-second lead at one point but lost out after the pitstops when Antonelli came in first for a change of tyres and then got ahead of the Briton who pitted one lap later.
Australian Oscar Piastri, last year's winner, completed the podium for McLaren after a lively finish to the race with Antonelli's teammate and closest rival Russell taking fourth.
Red Bull's Max Verstappen finished fifth after starting on the front row and spinning full circle on the opening lap without collecting anyone or being hit by other cars and dropping to 10th.
Ferrari's Charles Leclerc was sixth, passed by Russell and Verstappen in the final corners as he wrestled with a damaged car after leading at the start and then hitting the barrier at the end, while teammate Lewis Hamilton finished seventh.
Antonelli - the youngest driver ever to lead the championship at 19 years old - became the first to take his first three career wins from the top slot on the grid and also the first in five editions of the race to win in Miami from the front row.
"This is just the beginning, the road is still long," he said.
"We are working super hard and the team is doing an incredible job."
Antonelli now has 100 points to Russell's 80 and Leclerc's 63, with Norris on 51.
The safety car was deployed on lap six after two accidents, Red Bull's Isack Hadjar skidding into the wall and then Alpine's Pierre Gasly sent cartwheeling off after contact with the Racing Bulls of Liam Lawson.
Norris was not happy with the way the race turned out.
"How did we not win this? We should have won guys," Norris said over the team radio after the chequered flag.
"We just got undercut - no excuses other than that. We got undercut, we should have boxed (pitted) first," he explained later.
The race was brought forward by three hours after forecasts predicted lightning and thunderstorms and was completed without any weather interruption.
