At ten past three on Sunday afternoon, Mercedes looked set for a scenic stroll to a one-two having annexed the front row with a car featuring a heavily revised aerodynamic package on top of the engine upgrade introduced at the previous weekend's French Grand Prix.
Seventy minutes later, Mercedes had thrown away the lead and parked both cars while Max Verstappen took a wonderfully executed victory on Red Bull's home circuit.
Mercedes shot itself in the foot spectacularly through a combination of unreliability, tyre blistering and, most significantly, another strategic blunder. No wonder boss Toto Wolff described it as the team's "worst day".