Antonio Conte set a club record as he became the first Inter Milan coach to win his first five Serie A games at the helm after overseeing a 1-0 victory against Lazio.
The Nerazzurri extended its perfect start to the top-flight season courtesy of Danilo D'Ambrosio's first-half header at San Siro.
Wednesday's triumph took Inter back above Juventus at the summit, making it a maximum return of 15 points so far in a promising campaign.
Conte, who succeeded Luciano Spalletti during the close season, won three Serie A titles while in charge of Juve. He will now hope to bring the Scudetto to Inter, which was last crowned champions in 2009-10.
Special praise for Handanovic
Conte praised Handanovic and Inter's performance after the hard-fought victory.
"It was a tough, important victory against a very strong side, who have been working together for four years and have done nothing but strengthen in recent seasons. It was by no means an easy win to get," he told Sky Sport .
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"When analysing the game you have to split it into two parts. I wasn't happy in the first half, we started aggressively, we looked to stay high and they tried to hurt us on the break.
"Then after the goal we sat back too much, allowing Lazio to come onto us and Handanovic was excellent in that period, he made the difference.However, the team showed great character in the second half, we dominated and made sure of our success. All that was missing was the goal to kill the game off. We should have done better with our chances in the second half."
While the Italian was pleased, he still feels Inter – which visits Sampdoria on Saturday – can improve.
"Five wins in a row is no coincidence, we still have to grow a lot more but we're getting the right mentality," Conte said.
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