Max Verstappen himself had dismissed his chances of winning a fifth consecutive F1 Drivers' Championship after falling 104 points behind Oscar Piastri following the Dutch Grand Prix at the end of August.
Advance seven races and Verstappen now finds himself level on points with Piastri, who is no longer the championship leader after relinquishing top spot to his McLaren teammate Lando Norris.
Norris holds a 24-point advantage over his title rivals, but what was supposed to be a two-way battle is now a three-way fight and if Verstappen is crowned world champion upon conclusion of the Abu Dhabi Grant Prix, it will mark the greatest comeback in Formula 1 history.
As the Dutchman eyes an historic triumph, we've taken a look at some of the most dramatic championship turnarounds.
Kimi Raikkonen - 2007
Kimi Raikkonen was enjoying a splendid debut season with Ferrari after chalking up three victories for the famous Italian constructor, but he still trailed championship leader Lewis Hamilton by 16 points and had Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa ahead of him with five rounds remaining.
It's worth noting that this season was before the alteration to the points-scoring system, where a win was awarded 10 points and only the top eight drivers scored.
Victory in Belgium saw the 'Iceman' reduce the deficit to the McLaren duo of Hamilton and Alonso, and when the rookie Briton retired in the penultimate round in Shanghai after beaching his car in wet conditions, Raikkonen trailed Hamilton by seven points heading into the decider in Brazil.
Starting the weekend third in the standings, Raikkonen's title chances had seemed unfathomable but the Ferrari man triumphed at Interlagos, meaning Hamilton needed to finish lower than fifth and Alonso lower than second - Hamilton ended the race in seventh, while Alonso crossed the line in third, enabling Raikkonen to take the championship by just one point from the McLaren pair.
Keke Rosberg - 1982
Keke Rosberg only won one race in the 1982 season but it was still enough to claim his sole world championship.
The Finn trailed leader Didier Pironi by 16 points following the French Grand Prix with five rounds remaining, while John Watson, Alain Prost and Niki Lauda - who each claimed two victories - were ahead of him in the race for the title.
But a horrific career-ending crash for Pironi at the German Grand Prix, coupled with a catalogue of retirements for Watson, Prost and Lauda, saw Rosberg climb to the summit ahead of the season-ending Caesars Palace Grand Prix in Las Vegas and his fifth-placed finish wrapped up the title by five points over Pironi and Watson.
Sebastian Vettel - 2012
Two years after sensationally snatching the title from Fernando Alonso's clutches, Sebastian Vettel saved his best form for the latter stages of a season which witnessed seven different drivers take victory at each of the opening seven races.
The German trailed leader Alonso by 24 points with eight races remaining, but a run of four consecutive victories from Singapore to India propelled Vettel to the summit and the Red Bull man required a fifth-placed finish to claim a third consecutive title.
Boasting a healthy advantage arriving at Interlagos, Vettel's grasp of the championship disintegrated on the opening lap as he was involved in a first lap incident with Bruno Senna, and a lengthy pit stop in the torrential rain dropped him to the back of the field.
With damage to his car and Alonso holding the provisional lead of the championship, Vettel produced a mesmerising drive to scythe through the field in interchangeable conditions and cross the line in sixth.
Thankfully for Vettel, Alonso could only muster second behind Jenson Button, meaning he triumphed by just three points in one of the most spectacular conclusions to an F1 season.
