It should have been the day Lando Norris inflicted a significant blow on Max Verstappen's title defence.
He lined up on pole in the torrential Brazilian rain, having safely navigated a fraught qualifying session early in the morning while the Red Bull racer was consigned to 17th on the grid. But more downpours brought more chaos and, at the end of it all, the Brit found himself behind Verstappen and his Formula 1 title challenge in tatters.
The Dutchman took victory, smashing Lewis Hamilton's record number of places gained on the way to victory at Interlagos - the seven-time champion won from 10th in 2021 - ahead of the Alpine pair of Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly whose strategy gamble paid off in the form of a double podium.
And the extra point for the fastest lap means Verstappen is now 62 points ahead of Norris in the drivers' standings. With just three rounds left in the season, it will now take a miracle for the McLaren man to deny his rival a fourth-straight championship success.
The race start was delayed by around 20 minutes as a result of a bizarre Lance Stroll spin on the formation lap - after which he beached his Aston Martin in the gravel. It was his second crash of the day, after he also hit the barrier in qualifying, which meant his mechanics' hard work to get the car ready for the race was all for nothing.
It also sparked strange scenes as the FIA declared it an aborted start, but pole-sitter Norris set off on another formation lap. Most of the rest of the drivers followed him but some delayed before doing that as, correctly, they believed all the cars should have stayed on the grid.
Norris was quickly placed under investigation for a starting procedure infringement while several others were also accused of a similar breach of the rules. The McLaren driver's mood was not improved when Russell got by him on the first lap and quickly set about giving himself some breathing space.
Verstappen made up seven places by the first corner of the second lap when he swept past Hamilton who also found himself a handful of positions above his starting spot. The first lap was awful for under-pressure Sergio Perez, though, as he span around and luckily avoided getting his Red Bull stuck in the mud.
By lap 11, Verstappen was up to sixth and had set the fastest lap of the race to that point. But the rain intensified from there and overtaking became fraught with danger and even the Dutchman was wary of moving off the drier racing line to try to get past Charles Leclerc.
For Hamilton, it was turning into a miserable afternoon. Despite that bright start, he was struggling for pace in his Mercedes and declared it "not driveable" over the radio. A spin did not help his cause and he was soon overtaken by the Williams of Franco Colapinto, to the delight of the masses of Argentinian fans in the grandstands.
Lap 26 saw Ferrari become the first to blink, pitting Leclerc for a fresh set of intermediates - which turned out to be the wrong call just two laps later. The rain increased and Nico Hulkenberg span off and got his Haas stuck, triggering a virtual safety car. The top five had gone past the pit lane entry but everyone else dove in for fresh tyres.
Russell and Norris did the same but just as the VSC ended, handing the lead of the race to Ocon ahead of Verstappen. Shortly before half distance, the safety car came out as a particularly heave cell of rain hit the track. But soon after the race was stopped altogether when Colapinto lost control and smashed up his Williams.
It was a huge win for Ocon, Verstappen and Gasly who got a free change of tyres. And it was a massive blow to Norris who had started 17 places ahead of his title rival but suddenly found himself trailing him.
And things got worse on the restart when Verstappen took the lead from Ocon, while Norris locked up and went straight on at turn one to drop down to seventh. He regained a place when team-mate Oscar Piastri moved aside to let the other McLaren car by, but it was becoming quickly clear that it was simply not the Brit's day.
Norris had to settle for sixth place. Fellow Brit Hamilton managed just one point in the end, holding off a late challenge from Perez to protect 10th place behind the two VCARB cars which had started third and fifth but left with far fewer points than they would have liked.
What a huge day it was for Alpine, though, as their double podium catapulted them up from ninth into sixth in the constructors championship standings. As Ocon crossed the line, mechanics from their garage hugged and danced in the pit lane in joyous scenes.
