Formula 1: Lewis Hamilton's bid to become the first rookie driver to win the Formula One World Championship was put on hold after the McLaren driver suffered his first retirement of the season at the Chinese Grand Prix.
The 22-year-old beached his car in the gravel after sliding off the pit lane entry road as he came in to change heavily-worn tyres as an incredible season took another dramatic twist.
Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen won the 56-lap race by 9.8 seconds from second-placed McLaren driver Fernando Alonso as the pair set up a thrilling three-car showdown for the drivers' title in the final race at Brazil.
It had initially looked like Hamilton was set for an historic afternoon after he got away cleanly from pole and soon set about opening up an advantage over Raikkonen as all the field safely made it through the first corner.
Alonso had managed to pass Massa round the outside for third but the Brazilian retook the place at Turn Six condemning the Spaniard to fourth.
That was good news for Hamilton and the 22-year-old took control of the race with a succession of fastest laps to open up a 6.6-second lead over the Finn's Ferrari by lap 10, but more importantly was over 13 seconds ahead of team-mate Alonso, who had started to fall away from Massa after exerting brief pressure on the Brazilian.
The intermittent rain did not seem to bother Hamilton and he held a commanding lead by the time he made his first stop on lap 15, a 6.8 second effort, before Massa and Alonso followed soon after.
Raikkonen was the last to stop and tried to make the most of the fact by setting a couple of fastest laps. When he rejoined, he had more than halved the deficit but it was a case of as you were for the top four. But that soon changed in dramatic circumstances.
As the track continued to dry, Hamilton's wet weather tyres started to wear to such an extent that he was struggling to keep his McLaren on the circuit. The championship leader ran wide on numerous occasions and it was not long before he and Raikkonen were involved in a thrilling scrap for the lead that lasted the best part of a lap and a half before the Finn got his man on lap 29.
Hamilton was clearly in trouble as Raikkonen quickly opened a four-second lead and Alonso, who had finally passed Massa two laps previously, had reduced an 18-second deficit to virtually nothing. The Briton struggled along and came in on lap 31 but as he tried to make the final turn towards the pit entry, he could not keep his car on the track and ended up in the gravel.
He tried to restart his McLaren but to no avail, admitting defeat and eventually climbing out of the car as boss Ron Dennis thumped his monitor in frustration on the pit wall. Raikkonen then assumed control, pressing home his advantage over Alonso after the pair had both pitted for dry tyres.
Raikkonen said: "We needed that. "We're back in the championship. It will be interesting in the last race. We saw today that anything can and does happen so we'll see."
Alonso added: "It was not easy with the tyres. I'm very happy now. I wasn't happy with the qualifying and what happened. Eight points is good, I'm back in the championship, but it will still be difficult to win it.
"Eight points is good but I'm not changing my outlook."
Third-placed Massa said: "It was a good race. I did the fastest lap at the end and it was good to finish on the podium but it was not enough to win."