Michael Schumacher revelled in his "beautiful" day after breaking Fernando Alonso's stranglehold on the season with victory in the United States Grand Prix.
Schumacher led home team-mate Felipe Massa for a Ferrari one-two which broke a run of four consecutive wins for Alonso, whose championship lead has been trimmed to 19 points.
Massa led the race early but Schumacher's relentless pace saw him through on lap 30 into a lead which never looked threatened.
He won for the third time this season and clawed back six points on Renault's world champion Alonso, who put in a performance to forget on his way to fifth.
After being jeered on the podium last year following his win in a six-car parade, Schumacher enjoyed a warmer reception 12 months on and celebrated a crucial victory.
He said: "It is beautiful and we have to be thankful to our fans coming here after last year, still believing in us and supporting us the way they have this weekend. I am really happy to achieve this."
"We performed extremely well all weekend long. We knew we had a very good car in our hands, everything was just spot on.
"To have Felipe alongside is just a dream result and good for the championship."
Ferrari held a clear edge over world championship rivals Renault, whose best performer was Giancarlo Fisichella in third place.
Renault's constructors' championship lead is down to 25 points and could have been less, had Fisichella not kept Toyota's Jarno Trulli at bay in fourth.
As well as breaking Renault's dominant run, Schumacher's win etches his name into Indianapolis folklore as the only driver to win at the Brickyard five times.
For a driver famously apathetic towards statistics, he enjoyed his moment of history, saying: "Special, fantastic it is something extraordinary.
"The US has existed since 2000 for us in my racing period in Formula One and this place is very historic. Coming here the first time and winning made it very special.
"It's just great and one day sitting at home I will remember it."
For the first time this season Schumacher faced a serious threat from within his own team thanks to a mature performance from Massa.
The 25-year-old Brazilian claimed his best Formula One result and, despite leading for 30 laps, was not too disappointed to miss out on a maiden win.
"I would have liked to stay in the front but he managed to pass me and second is a great result," he said.
"Thinking about the championship I have no possibility to win so helping is the best - you need to be clever some times.
"I am just growing every race and learning to get the best experience I can for my future."
Massa's run emphasised Ferrari's superiority and Fisichella conceded they were in a league of their own, admitting his first podium in four races was as good a result as could be hoped for.
"Unfortunately those two guys were far away and their pace was a bit stronger than mine," he said.
"I did my best. Third is the best result we could do today so we have to be satisfied by that."
Behind the scrap for a podium finish, Rubens Barrichello took sixth to give under-fire Honda points for the first time since May.
But Jenson Button went a fourth race without scoring when he was part of an eight-car pile-up on lap one, started by Juan Pablo Montoya embarrassingly hitting McLaren team-mate Kimi Raikkonen.
Britain did score points through David Coulthard's seventh for Red Bull after a quiet race while Vitantonio Liuzzi got Scuderia Toro Rosso off the mark with eighth in their tenth race.
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