Lewis Hamilton vowed to bounce back after Mercedes' terrible strategic error robbed him of victory in Monaco, allowing team-mate and rival Nico Rosberg to close the gap in the drivers' championship.
For so long it looked like the reigning Formula One world champion would continue his impressive title defence with a fourth win of the season.
Hamilton looked all but certain to translate his first Monaco pole position into victory, only to undone by a bemusing call to pit after the safety car was brought out, first virtually and then a real car, following Max Verstappen's late crash.
It cost the 30-year-old a lights-to-flag victory as he re-emerged behind Rosberg and Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel - a gap he was unable to claw back in the narrow streets of the principality.
Hamilton struggled to put emotions into words after the race and, while visibly downbeat, showed impressive maturity in the circumstances.
"I can't express the way I feel at the moment," the British driver said. "I saw the team out in the pit lane on one of the screens and thought Nico was pitting.
"I came in with full confidence that the others had done the same.
"This is a race that's been close to my heart for years and it's special to me, so I really wanted to win.
"The team have been brilliant all year, so I don't blame them.
"We'll analyse and work out what went wrong, but we'll do that collectively and try to improve for the future.
"I always say to my team and my fans, we win and we lose together. You live to fight another day."
In the podium interview, Hamilton said he intended to "come back to win the next one" in Monaco, although his main concern now will be the fact his lead has been cut to 10 points.
The late turnaround saw Rosberg become just the fourth man to win in Monaco three years in a row, following Ayrton Senna, Alain Prost and Graham Hill.
"I am just very, very happy to have won the race," the German said. "On the other side, though, of course, Lewis was stronger this weekend.
"He deserved it for sure and I got lucky in the end there. I don't even know what happened. But, yeah, ecstatic about that anyway."
Mercedes' head of motorsport Toto Wolff has apologised to Hamilton for their costly miscalculation and said it was "all good" between them following a brief post-race exchange.
"He has such mental strength and he is on a roll," the Silver Arrows chief said.
"It must be very sore to lose that run because it was his to win. I have no doubt that he will recover as quickly as he always did."
Source: PA
