Lewis Hamilon's fourth title championship bidding is hanging in the balance as he looses match against Australian driver Danniel Ricciardo.
Hamilton was on course to cruise to the 50th victory of his career at a sweltering Sepang and move at least five points clear of his sole rival Nico Rosberg, who fought back to finish third following a first-corner collision with Sebastian Vettel, in the championship race.
But with 15 laps remaining, Hamilton's Mercedes engine blew up in the most dramatic of circumstances to hand victory to Daniel Ricciardo with his team-mate Max Verstappen following him home to seal Red Bull's first one-two finish in nearly three years.
Rosberg, who served what turned out to be a meaningless 10-second elapsed penalty following a banzai move on Kimi Raikkonen, is now 23 points clear of Hamilton with just five rounds remaining.
Hamilton headed into the Sepang race having seen his 19-point lead over Rosberg evaporate into an eight-point deficit by virtue of the German winning all three of the races following the summer break.
But despite an off-colour weekend last time out in Singapore, Hamilton was back to his commanding best here.
After dominating practice, he qualified nearly half-a-second clear of Rosberg before controlling the race only to suffer yet another engine failure in a season which has been marred by a number of mechanical woes.
"Oh, no, no," said an exasperated Hamilton with his head on his crash helmet and his stricken Mercedes on fire.
The world champion left his cockpit before crouching down on his knees in the gravel at turn one. It could be the defining moment of a championship which increasingly appears to be falling in Rosberg's direction.
At one stage, it looked rather different for the German, who was running last at the end of lap one after Vettel crashed into him at the first corner.
"Sebastian is crazy," said Verstappen, who was sandwiched in the incident. "He went into Rosberg like an idiot."
While Rosberg was able to solider on, Vettel retired with damage to his front-left suspension.
Rosberg then began his impressive comeback, picking off cars one-by-one, and by the time of his first pit stop he had progressed to 12th. By lap 20 he was running in fifth place after passing the Williams of Valtteri Bottas.
On lap 38 he then attempted, what the stewards later deemed to be an illegal move on Raikkonen at turn two, after the pair banged wheels.
Rosberg served a timed penalty after the race, but because he finished 13 seconds clear of the Ferrari driver it did not matter. With 125 points remaining, he is now 23 clear of Hamilton.
Ricciardo finished 2.4 seconds clear of Verstappen to claim his first victory in more than two years. Raikkonen crossed the line in fourth with Bottas in fifth place.
Jenson Button finished ninth in his 300th start while British rookie Jolyon Palmer claimed the first points of his career with 10th.
Hamilton, who has now suffered engine problems at three races, while in Belgium he was forced to start from last following an engine penalty, told BBC Radio 5 Live: "My question is to Mercedes. We have so many engines made for drivers, but mine are the only ones failing this year.
"Someone need to give me some answers because this is not acceptable. We are fighting for the championship and only my engines are failing. It does not sit right with me.
"I will try and recollect myself and try to get myself together for the race next week. There are many decisive races but this is one of those.
"Someone doesn't want me to win this year but I won't give up. I will keep pushing."
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