Now you know what it’s like, mate.

That is what Lando Norris, enjoying a strangely warming Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix, could comfort himself by thinking after witnessing his McLaren buddy Oscar Piastri’s hard experience of Max Verstappen’s sheer brilliance.

Yes, the Dutchman won, not Norris. He finished second, but Piastri was third.

Living with the favourite-for-the-title tag is no bagatelle. Norris has found that out. He has worn the pressure in his public babel. Piastri, carrying a 16-point lead into the race, had been coolness personified.

That lasted a second or two here. His start was razor-sharp. Next came the first reminder of what Verstappen is all about. A glance at the screens any time over the following two hours was full of them.

Turn One. Verstappen, from second on the grid, braked so late he was nearly in the 22nd Century. He then wriggled in front of Piastri, the pole-sitter, at Tamburello moments later, to complete the mugging.

The Australian, perhaps distracted by George Russell’s Mercedes tailing him hard after starting directly behind him, had braked fractionally less early than Verstappen had braked late. The die was cast.

‘Win it or bin it,’ purred Red Bull team principal Christian Horner of his man’s calculated chutzpah.

Piastri admitted he had been surprised by Verstappen’s attack. ‘I thought I had it pretty under control,’ he lamented. ‘It was a good move from Max. I’ll learn for next time, clearly.’

Verstappen opened up a one-second buffer over Piastri in what remained of the 3.05miles of the opening lap, and 1.4sec on his next navigation of Imola.

He continued ripping into a lead he would not have surrendered as long as there was a sun in the sky.

Proving the point, Verstappen kept up the pace on aging tyres on his first stint, establishing a margin broad enough to guarantee he would emerge from his eventual pit stop still in front. This advantage was achieved against McLarens that were predicted to be dominant.

As Piastri, chasing a fourth win on the bounce, said of being usurped early on: ‘At that point I wasn’t overly concerned not to be in the lead. But then our pace just wasn’t as strong as I expected.’

There have been times these last few seasons when Verstappen’s abilities harnessed to a Red Bull of his dreams has been a dead weight on the competitiveness of the fare.

That was not the case last year when Norris, to be blunt, wasted his superior tools. And certainly not this season, up to yesterday anyway, when he has kept his toe in the championship door, only his bruised nail acting as a defiant wedge.

He has banged away, his go-to gung-ho defence and attack mostly serving him well through the early part of the season. In Miami, a fortnight ago, his belligerence was evident again. Its brutality can lodge itself in the psyche of those around him. Norris knows it. Piastri is getting to know it.

Verstappen has closed to within 22 points of Piastri and nine of Norris with 17 races of the marathon remaining. He is in the hunt, rewarded for never having rested in his commitment, not so much waiting as working for a reversal of fortunes.

‘We are building up momentum at a crucial time,’ said Horner at the end of his team’s 400th race, 65 of them won by Verstappen.

Motor racing has witnessed some greats. A reminder here outside the famous old track is Via Nuvorali, homage to the pre-War buccaneer whom Murray Walker rated the finest drivers ever. But, then again, Murray did not live long enough to see Verstappen in his pomp. We did, again, this his fourth win at Imola, all in succession like his quadruple world titles.

A virtual safety car was not unhelpful to Verstappen when Haas’s Esteban Ocon conked out. A later safety car, brought about by Kimi Antonelli’s Mercedes giving up the ghost, was less timely. It meant Piastri and Norris were on his tail when racing resumed after seven laps of concertinaing.

No problem for Max. He was off like a getaway car.

Should McLaren not have swapped Norris, running third, with Piastri, second? The Briton was on newer tyres, and, if any mortal was going to pressurise Verstappen with nine laps remaining, it was the one wearing fresh kickers.

Horner later argued – irrelevant. ‘We had the pace to cover that,’ he said

After four laps following Piastri, Norris passed him in close combat, breaths held on the McLaren pit wall. It was a brave and precise move.

But, by now, Verstappen was a speck up the road. So it concluded, with Verstappen weaving over the line six seconds ahead of Norris with Piastri a further six distant.

Credit to Red Bull for the aero upgrade they brought to Italy. This is a special team. You don’t win multiple championships in two separate phases, eight years apart, without tenacity.

While acknowledging their collective resilience, one extra statistic to benchmark Verstappen’s personal glory: Yuki Tsunoda, in the other Red Bull, came home 10th, 24sec adrift of the pace after the final, brief stanza of racing. And, make no mistake, the Japanese titch drove well to get into the points after a big shunt on Saturday.

It is just that Verstappen is a racer apart, and just maybe his car has come to meet him in the middle.