Kimi Raikkonen and Fernando Alonso ensured the world championship battle will go down to the wire in Brazil after they took full advantage of Lewis Hamilton's dramatic retirement to finish first and second in the Chinese Grand Prix.
Title leader Hamilton had looked set to clinch his place in history as Formula 1's first rookie world champion after commandingly leading the first half of the wet-dry race, but agonisingly slid off into the gravel on the pit lane entry while grappling with clapped-out tyres.
The Briton's first major mistake of the year means he will now have to go through the wringer of what is set to be a nail-biting finale in Interlagos and the sport's first three-way title decider since 1986.
He heads there with just a four-point cushion over team-mate Alonso, and a further three in hand over Raikkonen, who took his fifth win of the season and Ferrari's 200th overall after an action-packed 98 minutes in Shanghai.
Morning rain showers meant the drivers faced damp and greasy conditions at the start, with further showers predicted to arrive just minutes into the event.
Yet none of this uncertainty seemed to affect Hamilton, who knew a win would wrap up the world crown with a round to spare.
The 22-year-old made the perfect getaway from pole, comfortably leading Raikkonen into turn one.
Alonso, meanwhile, knowing he had to make an impact from the second row early on if he was to put pressure on his team-mate, set about trying to pass the Ferraris around the outside of the first turn.
He got the first – Felipe Massa – despite a joust into the left-handed turn three, and had a look up the inside of Raikkonen on the exit.
But he soon slipped down back to fourth, as Massa dived down the inside of him under braking for turn six.
And that appeared to be that for the Spaniard’s title chances.
The forecast rain shower materialised on lap two, but this made little difference to Hamilton who, finding more grip and traction from his MP4-22, serenely pulled away at the front.
Indeed he continued to pull away from Raikkonen comfortably with his margin of superiority per lap varying from 0.5s to 0.8s.
By the time he initiated the first round of pit stops at the end of lap 15, his advantage stood at 8.6s.
While he took on more fuel, he decided not to change his intermediate tyres despite the track now drying and the right-front beginning to look particularly bald.
Massa and Alonso made their respective stops over the next two laps, with Raikkonen the last of the top four to dive in at the end of lap 19.
The Finn, who had been sure that Hamilton had been lighter on fuel after qualifying, made the most of his extra laps on track to halve the title leader’s advantage when he exited the pits.
Nevertheless, Hamilton still seemed to have the race under control, as he immediately responded to the increased threat with a new fastest lap.
However the complexion of the race, and indeed the world championship battle, was turned on its head at the half-distance mark.
Although another rain shower was forecast imminently, the track had moved into a dry tyre zone and Williams’ Alex Wurz was the first to take the calculated gamble.
Others, including fifth-placed David Coulthard and Red Bull team-mate Mark Webber, followed suit.
Massa switched to 'slicks' on lap 27, but only after Alonso had passed him at the end of the back straight to move up to third.
Little did the Spaniard know that this would be the start of his championship recovery, as up ahead his race-leading team-mate began to struggle badly with his increasingly worn inters.
From a position of relative comfort, Hamilton fell into the clutches of Raikkonen and the Finn was soon all over his MP4-22’s gearbox.
As when Michael Schumacher hounded of a similarly grip-less Alonso last year, there was only one likely outcome and, after Lewis went in too deep at turn eight, his Ferrari rival swept past into nine to steal the lead.
This was still far from a disaster for Hamilton, but what unfolded in the next three laps most certainly was, as his weekend's destiny took a different course.
Despite his struggles only getting worse by the corner, and with his right-rear Bridgestone now down to the canvas, McLaren failed to call him in for fresh rubber and ultimately paid a heavy price.
With Alonso now bearing down on him, and a dry-tyred Jarno Trulli managing to unlap himself, Hamilton finally peeled into the pit lane at the end of lap 31 – but that is where his race would finish.
As he rounded the 90-degree left-hand corner in the entry lane, the Briton unbelievably slid off the road and came to a heartbreaking stop in the gravel.
Although he kept the engine running, his rear wheels dug into the gravel and – unlike at the Nurburgring in July – there was no push from the marshals or helpful crane to lift him out of trouble.
The first retirement of his astounding debut season gave both Raikkonen and a charging Alonso the stroke of luck they needed to keep their title hopes alive.
And there were no mistakes from either, as they both soon switched to the dry tyres and duly went on to finish in first and second respectively.
Raikkonen eventually crossed the line 9.8s ahead of Alonso, with Massa three seconds further back in third after setting the race’s fastest lap on his final tour.
Behind the top three, the race’s inclement weather had produced a fierce battle between a string of drivers and teams.
The big winner was Sebastian Vettel, who wiped out memories of his Fuji nightmare to claim a miraculous fourth place for Toro Rosso.
The young German used a one-stop strategy to perfection to move up from 17th on the grid and hand STR by far its best-ever F1 finish, paying the team back for the support it showed him following his mistake behind the safety car last weekend.
Team-mate Tonio Liuzzi ran strongly in sixth place for most of the race and kept his composure throughout to hand the little Italian outfit a further three points to complete a result that exceeded its wildest expectations.
Jenson Button sandwiched the two STR drivers in a season-high fifth place, banishing his own memories of his disappointing Japanese race.
After a poor start, the Briton made his big move in the race’s unpredictable second phase, not for the first time in his career making light work of the tricky conditions.
Nick Heidfeld salvaged seventh from a difficult weekend for BMW, after it had already seen Robert Kubica retire from the race lead before his second pit stop.
Coulthard took the final point to cap his strong weekend, although it had promised much more than that if the rain hadn't returned just after he had switched to dry tyres at his second pit stop.
Nevertheless, the Scot did well to fend off the marauding Renault of Heikki Kovalainen for eighth.
1. K.Raikkonen
2. F.Alonso
3. F.Massa