That left Hamilton leading from Massa, as both continued onto the last lap barely tip-toeing around, and lapping a full half a minute slower than they had been doing earlier on in the race. Once more Hamilton and McLaren seemed to be handling the situation better, as the Briton mastered the tricky conditions to retain his advantage – though he caused his team's pit wall a brief scare when he ran wide into the Bus-Stop for the final time – and come home almost 15 seconds to the good after a race of epic proportions.

Behind Massa, Heidfeld stole the bottom spot on the podium after charging around the circuit on his intermediate rubber, going all the way around the outside of BMW team-mate Kubica on his way to P3 – and his fourth rostrum finish of the campaign – at a crucial time for his 2009 contract talks with the Munich and Hinwil-based outfit

A similarly intermediate-shod Alonso overtook two cars into the Bus-Stop for the final time to come home fourth, ahead of Vettel and Kubica, with Bourdais falling back from third place to seventh on the last lap, the distraught Frenchman – as in Melbourne – losing a whole handful of points in the very dying moments.

With Kovalainen pulling off the circuit on the final tour, Glock took the final point, as Webber, the stationary Kovalainen, Coulthard, Rosberg, Sutil, Kazuki Nakajima, Jenson Button, Trulli and Fisichella completed the finishers at the end of one of the most extraordinary grands prix of recent times.

To see the race results in full, click here