There were no such problems for team-mate Massa, however, as he sailed serenely on and continued to open out an advantage over the chasing Alonso, up to 8.4 seconds prior to his final pit-stop. Raikkonen's demise promoted Webber, Wurz and Kovalainen into a scrap for the bottom step of the podium, while Hamilton's first target on his climb back through the field was Fisichella, who refused to yield into turn one but had no answer to the flying Briton's pace later on in the same lap as the McLaren fearlessly went all the way around the outside of turn eleven with two wheels brushing the grass and up the inside into the final chicane.

Trulli made the job somewhat easier for him a couple of laps later, and when the recently-refuelled Silver Arrow shot down the inside of Barrichello he was up into the top ten and off in search of Fisichella once more for ninth. With Kubica and Heidfeld 31 seconds ahead of the McLaren, Massa bearing down to lap him behind, Alonso cutting the gap on the Brazilian from 11.4 seconds to just six and 18 laps left to run, few doubted that the drama was far from over yet.

A little further back, meanwhile, Lady Luck seemed to be smiling on the perennially luckless Webber for once as he rejoined from his final pit-stop still ahead of Wurz and Kovalainen and looking good for a podium spot – only the second of his five-and-a-half-year career in the top flight.

With 15 laps to go Hamilton went a lap down, and his chances of scoring even a single point seemed to be fast fading away. Though he would remain in the wheeltracks of the race leader to show what might have been, that was small consolation for what had been undoubtedly the biggest rollercoaster weekend of his brief F1 career.

With eleven laps to go and the rain once again closing in, Alonso had the gap to Massa down to 4.4 seconds. Kovalainen was the first to blink, changing over to intermediates in a podium gamble and rejoining just ahead of team-mate Fisichella in eighth place. It did not take the Italian long to go past and steal away the final point, but just seconds later and with eight laps remaining, the heavens opened again.

With Massa visibly starting to struggle, the pit crews got into position, and there was further drama as the two leaders came in with Fisichella in-between them. As McLaren released Alonso there was a close call with the Renault, which was already motoring down the pit-lane, and the Spaniard narrowly and somewhat contentiously managed to muscle his way past and off in pursuit of Massa again.

Indeed, the gap at the front following the pit-stops was down to just 1.2 seconds, and with Alonso by far the more confident on the brakes in the treacherous conditions the race was on. The McLaren was swarming all over the back of the hitherto uncatchable Ferrari, and a failed attempt around the outside of turn one was only the prelude to a supremely brave move around the outside of turn five that put him on the inside line going into turn six, the exact same place where a mistake in qualifying had arguably cost Alonso pole position. Though the pair lightly touched wheels as Massa defended hard, the pass was made and Alonso was gone, reminding everyone just why he is the reigning double world champion with arguably the move of the season so far and one reminiscent of Michael Schumacher's on Jean Alesi in the closing stages of a similarly weather-savaged race at the same circuit twelve years earlier.

From there on, despite a brief fightback from Massa, Alonso sprinted away, with his eventual winning margin 8.1 seconds at the chequered flag. There was more drama further back, as Webber was increasingly struggling in the difficult conditions and coming under real pressure in the dying stages from Wurz in the Williams. Indeed, just as the Red Bull ace seemed to have it covered with a 0.6 second margin on the final tour, he made a small mistake into the last chicane and Wurz came desperately close to getting alongside the Australian, who was forced to hold the tightest of lines through the last corner to cross the finish line just three tenths of a second ahead.

The charging Coulthard was fast closing the pair down at the end, finishing a mere eight seconds behind in fifth to complete the best day of RBR's brief F1 history and launch the Milton Keynes-based squad up the constructors' leaderboard.

The battling BMWs held onto sixth and seventh at the close, with an unusually scrappy Heidfeld narrowly getting the verdict over Kubica, while Hamilton spent the final laps chasing down the duelling Renaults, and though he would succeed in depriving Fisichella of his ninth place, Kovalainen would not be parted from eighth and the Briton ultimately came agonisingly close to nicking a world championship point after a race that had everything from lights out to chequered flag.