Fernando Alonso won his first race in more than a year on Sunday while Lewis Hamilton extended his championship lead to seven points after a sensational Singapore Grand Prix.
Ferrari's Felipe Massa, a point behind Hamilton before Formula One's first night race, suffered a potential hammer blow to his title hopes after a pitstop blunder sent him from first to last. He finished 13th and out of the points.
Germany's Nico Rosberg finished second for Williams with Hamilton third for McLaren.
The result left 23-year-old Hamilton on course to become Formula One's youngest champion with 84 points to Massa's 77 and three races remaining.
Brazilian Massa had started on pole position and was on course to take the championship lead from Hamilton before a safety car interlude followed by a disastrous first pitstop changed the complexion of the race.
The Ferrari man was given the green light to go but the fuel hose was still connected to the car as he accelerated away.
The Ferrari dragged the hose down the pitlane, knocking over mechanics in the process, before Massa stopped and waited for assistance. After they struggled to remove the hose, the Brazilian rejoined the race at the back of the field.
Alonso, who had started in 15th place, took advantage of a safety car interlude and Massa's pitstop blunder to move up the field and collect the 20th win of his career and first since Italy last year for McLaren.
"Today shows that Formula One is unpredictable," said Alonso, who had been dominant in practice but started way down on the grid after a mechanical problem in qualifying for the sport's 800th grand prix.
"After qualifying our hopes were gone...Obviously we were lucky. I will need a couple of days to realise we have won our first race of the year," said the Spaniard.
LUCK
While Hamilton was disappointed not take full points from the race, he was delighted to extend his lead in the championship over Massa.
"I honestly can't complain," said the McLaren man, who lost valuable time being stuck behind the Red Bull of David Coulthard for a big part of a race that was twice interrupted by the safety car.
"To have a podium finish in the first Singapore night race is a good result. It's all about scoring points."
Both Ferraris failed to score a point and world champion Kimi Raikkonen has now failed to get on the board in four consecutive races, his 27 point deficit to Hamilton all-but ruling him out of the title race.
Ferrari also slipped behind McLaren by a point in the constructors race.
Rosberg had to fend off Hamilton in the closing laps before bagging a career-best second place and he said that Lady Luck had finally smiled on the Williams team.
The German had to overcome a 10-second penalty for making an unauthorised pitstop while the safety car was out after Brazilian Nelson Piquet crashed his Renault.
"I was really annoyed, I thought that was the end of it," said Rosberg, who later took advantage of another safety car appearance to move up the order.
"I think we deserved it, luck was on our side for once."
Toyota's Timo Glock finished in fourth place ahead of Toro Rosso's Sebastian Vettel, Nick Heidfeld (BMW-Sauber) and Coulthard. Williams' Kazuki Nakajima picked up the last point on offer in eighth place.
(Editing by Alan Baldwin)
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