No other race stirs the senses like the Monaco Grand Prix, and for sheer drama, no other victory has roused the imagination for quite some time as the one on Sunday by Lewis Hamilton.
When Monte Carlo is bathed in sunshine and the well-to-do jetset strut their stuff around the harbour full to the brim with multi-million pound super-yachts, it is a world far removed from reality.
Equally is the sight of today's modern-day beast of a Formula One car hurtling around Casino Square and through the famed tunnel at 180mph.
Surely Monaco's streets were never meant to witness such savagery in comparison to when the Principality staged its first official grand prix in 1950.
But the Formula One calendar would simply not be the same without its jewel in the crown, even if a proposal in this day and age to hold a race around such a narrow, twisty track would draw worried frowns from the safety and technical brigade within the FIA.
I have been 'lucky' enough to stand at the end of the tunnel when an F1 car flashes past in a blur, the noise ear-splitting without plugs, and the ground reverberating beneath my feet.
All that has separated me from it has been a metal Armco, the car within inches of the barrier, so close that I could reach over and touch it.
At no other circuit around the world could you come within such proximity to a car travelling on a public road at such ferocious speeds.
Emerging out of the tunnel's gloom and into daylight, a driver has just 200 metres before being forced into a sharp left on entry to the Nouvelle Chicane.
At moments like that you gain a small insight into the bravery - for that is what it is - of the guys who step into the cockpit.
It was at that point in 1994, just two weeks after the deaths of fellow Austrian Roland Ratzenberger and Brazilian legend Ayrton Senna in San Marino, Karl Wendlinger lost control of his Sauber Mercedes.
Wendlinger hit the middle barrier that separates the run-off area to the right from the track on the left, the accident leaving him in a coma for weeks, effectively bringing an end to his F1 career as he was clearly not the same driver in attempting a comeback that fell flat the following year.
In 2003, Jenson Button clipped the same barrier in his BAR Honda in Saturday practice, sustaining concussion that forced him out of the race the following day.
Then in qualifying on Saturday, David Coulthard walked away from what he described as one of the biggest shunts of his career with nothing but a sore head and elbow.
The Scot, who destroyed his Red Bull Racing car after smashing into a barrier to his right coming out of the tunnel before flying down the run-off road, appreciated he might not have been so lucky if he had caught the same Armco as Wendlinger.
When you consider that, multiply the danger immeasurably in the wet and you have some appreciation for the job the drivers do as they travel behind a wall of spray and with limited visibility.
It is why Hamilton's success was so marked, the Briton starting from third on the grid and behind an all-Ferrari front row just as the rain started to fall.
An already damp track very quickly became wet, accounting for the 23-year-old as he clipped a barrier on lap six, puncturing his right-rear tyre.
It served as a wake-up call, and after giving himself a dressing down, Hamilton then drove imperiously, to such an extent at one stage he was more than three seconds per lap quicker than any other driver.
It was a performance reminiscent of his late hero Senna, who won six times at Monaco such was his love affair with the place, a feeling shared by Hamilton who became only the fifth Briton to take the chequered flag at the historic venue.
Not even former British world champions Mike Hawthorn, Jim Clark, John Surtees, James Hunt, Nigel Mansell and Damon Hill managed to tame Monaco, so it is to Hamilton's eternal credit he did so in such emphatic fashion.
As father Anthony remarked after the race: "There are two dreams when you start out in Formula One, to win the world championship and the Monaco Grand Prix - one down, one to go!"
After Monaco, Hamilton will certainly be walking tall, but with his feet on the ground as he attempts to turn the second dream into reality.
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