The Brazilian winger saw new teammate Jude Bellingham completely take over European football's biggest fixture, but still took plenty of headlines.
A Barca-killer last Clasico with a goal and assist in a 4-0 Copa del Rey semi-final win last season, Vinicius didn't have the same impact this time at the Olimpic Stadium.
However, a few touchline tangles saw him come face-to-face with Barca manager Xavi.
The first incident with Madrid a goal down through Ilkay Gundogan saw the winger taken down by Gavi, and Barca almost scoring again through Joao Felix in the 25th minute.
Annoyed at what he thought was a foul in the build-up, something Xavi said clearly irked the no.7, who went up close and personal with the manager, but thankfully things didn't spiral out of control when Xavi gave him a gentle slap on the cheek.
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20 minutes later in first half stoppage time, Vinicius was again in front of Xavi's technical area and bundled into it by Ferran Torres.
The pair ended up in a pile in front of Xavi, who again had words with his opponent, clearly enjoying his frustration at a dominant first half from Barca.
That all changed thanks to Bellingham, though, and when Vinicius was taken off as a time-wasting substitute shortly after the Englishman's winner, things again got tetchy.
Taking all the time in the world to walk off and gee up the away end, Brazil teammate Raphinha rushed over to push Vinicius off the pitch.
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The Madrid star wasn't having any of it, but neither was his manager Carlo Ancelotti, who grabbed him by the arm and walked him off the pitch and down the tunnel.
That was it for Vini's night, at least on the pitch anyway.
Taking to social media shortly after a huge win that puts Real four points clear of third-placed Barca, he posted an image of the celebrations with Bellingham and added the caption 'New era'.
That might not sound like much of a dig at first glance, but it was very likely a reference to Barcelona's 2022 documentary of the same name, showing that Madrid indeed think it's them who are about to begin the next stage of LaLiga dominance.