Only something extraordinary it seemed would deny four-time world champion Lewis Hamilton victory at the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne.
And to Hamilton's disbelief it did.
Mercedes team chief Toto Wolff blamed a computer glitch for allowing Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel to emerge from a mid-race virtual safety car pit stop ahead of Hamilton before holding on for a shock win in Sunday's Formula One season opener.
Hamilton was the overwhelming favourite at Albert Park after setting a new lap record to clinch a seventh pole position.
And the 33-year-old Briton picked up where he left off from the start of the 58-lap opener, showing unparalleled speed to lead for almost half of the race.
Then everything changed.
After Hamilton made his pit stop, a virtual safety car was triggered when Romain Grosjean's Haas came to a halt after 25 laps.
Vettel grabbed his chance and pitted under the safety car's speed restrictions before sensationally emerging ahead of Hamilton and was never headed - much to his rival's shock.
"What just happened, guys? Why didn't you tell me Vettel was in the pits?" a bewildered Hamilton said on the team radio.
Wolff still seemed to be scratching his head over an answer post-race but put it down to computer error.
He said their data system must have miscalculated the time gap Hamilton needed to ensure he had could keep the lead under a virtual safety car.
"We thought we had enough margin to beat Sebastian but then we saw the TV pictures and it wasn't enough - I think it must have been a software problem somewhere in our system," he said.
Hamilton was confident he could have "done something to change the scenario" if his team had told him Vettel was in the pits.
"It was quite close between us about a second or so, so if I had known Sebastian was in my window I may have been able to make a difference, yes," he said.
Vettel admitted he "got lucky" saying Hamilton was the fastest at Albert Park.
"Lewis was probably the quickest out of all of us," he said.
"But that's how it goes. If you are wearing red (Ferrari's colours) it is a good day."
Hamilton was certainly seeing red post-race.
The Briton cut a gutted figure as he slumped in his seat post-race, taking what seemed an eternity to finally emerge from his Mercedes.
His mood lifted afterwards as he set his sights on redemption in round two at Bahrain on April 9.
"Overall, this weekend has been positive," Hamilton tweeted.
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