Fernando Alonso has assumed his place firmly at the top of Formula 1 by being crowned the sixth, and youngest, double world champion as the sport moves into the post-Michael Schumacher era after his great rival's unlikely challenge was finally deflated along with his left rear tyre.
While Schumacher's team-mate Felipe Massa cruised to a famous home victory in Brazil, the great man himself could not quite save his slim title chances after a puncture dropped him to the back of the pack early in the race.
But on his 248th and final appearance as F1's pre-eminent legend, Schumacher proved why his is a talent and presence that will be acutely missed within this sport with a stunning fightback that matches any of the great drives in his amazing career.
Schumacher's left-rear tyre was lacerated by debris from Nico Rosberg's crashed Williams, but instead of succumbing to stunning misfortune, Schumacher instead decimated the field with that old familiar crushing superiorty.
The fastest man on the track throughout the race the 37-year-old German seven-time world champion goes in to history as merely a 91-time race-winner thanks to hand of fate.
The statistics will record a fourth place to bookend the greatest career in the history of the sport – but what a drive.
Heroic though it was, containing possibly the best passing move he has ever produced to secure fourth from Kimi Raikkonen, it wasn't enough to complete his stated target of helping Ferrari win the constructors' title.
That too slipped from his grasp as Giancarlo Fisichella's sixth place proved enough to ensure the French manufacturer kept both titles.
Alonso meanwhile did what he always does best and held his nerve, keeping in check his own brand of fiery pace for much of the event, securing the crown with a calculated and perfectly executed second place.
The champion only ever needed to score a single point, but the pressure on the Spaniard to deliver what would otherwise be a simple task must have been a phenomenal weight to carry.
You would never have known it.
For Massa it was a dream result.
The 24-year-old Brazilian provided the residents of Sao Paulo with their first home winner since Ayrton Senna in 1993 with a brilliant and pitch perfect drive for Ferrari.
Proof, if ever it was needed, that now Ferrari have two bona fide front-runners to replace a man who surely will be forever irreplaceable.
