Bennett (BORA- Hansgrohe) scorched to victory in the denouement to Saturday's second stage after Australian sprint prospect Kaden Groves (BikeExchange-Jayco) found himself out of position at the end of the pancake flat 175.1km route to Utrecht from 's-Hertogenbosch.
Alpecin-Deceuninck led the peloton for the majority of the stage and caught the five-man breakaway with 60 kilometres to go despite some contradictory pace-setting tactics.
Luis Angel Mate (Euskaltel-Euskadi) made a solo push with about 30 kilometres to go but his effort proved futile as he too was caught ahead of the final technical final stages into Utrecht.
The 31-year-old Bennett, who's had a difficult couple of years since his last grand tour victory, also at the Vuelta, was given a perfect lead-out by his BORA-Hansgrohe teammate Danny van Poppel before comfortably holding off Mads Pedersen and Tim Merlier.
It was the Irishman's ninth win in the grand tours and continued his record of taking at least one stage in each of his last five.
"Danny launched me and it was down to the boys today ... I was more worried about holding on than passing people. It's nice. I knew I'd do it again," said Bennett.
"It's just a matter of getting the right legs. What I'm really happy is about is continuing my pattern of winning at every grand tour I've been in since 2018."
Mike Teunissen (Jumbo-Visma) took over the leader's red jersey from teammate Robert Gesink after finishing the stage in fourth.
Primoz Roglic remains in fourth position in the general classification with Richard Carapaz (INEOS Granadiers) his closest rival 13 seconds back.
The Vuelta a Espana continues tonight with stage 3, a 193-kilometre route starting and finishing in the Dutch town of Breda. Watch the action LIVE from 8.20 pm (AEST) on SBS OnDemand and 11pm (AEST) on SBS.
