On the hottest day in London Marathon history it took Eliud Kipchoge 24 hard miles to neutralise a field laced with venom and great expectations. Yet deep down the Kenyan’s victory, his third here, merely confirmed what most spectators already knew: he is the finest 26.2-miler of all time. A much greater surprise was to be found further down The Mall, where Mo Farah was holding on for third in a British record of 2hr 6min 21sec.

True, it was still two minutes behind Kipchoge, who glided home in 2:04:17 – a staggering feat on a day where temperatures topped 24C, a race record by two degrees. Yet Farah’s performance showed that the doubters, who suspected he was running London solely for one last massive payday before hanging up his Nike Vaporfly Elites, were wide of the mark.

“I really enjoyed it - even though over the last 10km I was bollocksed,” said Farah, delighted at tasting sweet redemption after flopping in his first marathon attempt in 2014. “To run a personal best, break the British record and finish on the podium. It can’t get better than that.”

The 35-year-old divides opinion as few other British sportsmen. Yet remarkably he now holds national records over 1500m, 3,000m, 5,000m, 10,000m, the half-marathon and the marathon. Those performances inspire awe in some quarters and suspicion in others – given that his former coach Alberto Salazar, who turned him into a world-beater, remains under investigation by the US Anti-Doping Agency.

But whatever one’s view, Farah’s belief he could be a marathon medal contender at next year’s world championships and at the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo no longer appears outlandish – especially given he was able to handle a devilishly fast pace and stick with Kipchoge until 18 miles before his legs and spirit finally began to buckle.

“If I can run 2hr 06min in a major championship, it shows I can be competitive,” Farah said. “I’ve beaten some good runners. I’m satisfied. I fought as much as I could.”

The race began with a collective moment of madness, as the field rushed through the first mile in an astonishing 4min 22sec. Farah had intended to attach himself to a slower group, with the aim of reaching halfway in 61min 45sec. Instead he realised that, because everyone else was going with Kipchoge, who reached 13.1 miles in 61 minutes flat, he had to do so as well.

That was not the only thing to throw him. Farah’s coach, Gary Lough, had prepared his drinks bottles with a highly potent carbohydrate solution. Yet at the 10km mark Farah picked up the wrong bottle, leaving him to remonstrate with one of the support crew when they pulled up on a motorbike beside him.

“I was table four but the staff was trying to take pictures and I was trying to take a drink,” Farah said. “Me and the other athlete from Ethiopia had the exact same bottle and were on the same table, too. So I was telling the people: ‘Can you please just tell us which one is our drink because it’s exactly the same bottle.’”

To make matters worse Farah then picked up and dropped his bottle at 20km, losing more valuable metres. Perhaps it should not have been a surprise for while Farah was back on familiar turf, close to the scene of his Olympic 5,000m and 10,000m triumphs at London 2012, the marathon is still largely alien territory. As Paula Radcliffe pointed out, Farah could have avoided the problem by making his drinks bottle more distinctive.

Despite his lack of bottle, Farah was still in contention and even moved up to Kipchoge’s shoulder after 18 miles. But it was the briefest of mirages. Soon he was slipping back, leaving the 21-year-old Ethiopian Tola Kitata and Kipchoge to duke it out in front, with the latter finally breaking clear near the end to win by 32 seconds.

London Marathon 2018: Kipchoge wins men's race with Farah third as Cheruiyot takes women's – live! Read more

“I was a little bit worried,” a smiling Kipchoge said. “But I said it would be a beautiful race and it was.”

Farah noted with regret that he had run his first half too quickly, in 61 minutes, before coming home in 65. And while he insisted afterwards that he was still learning, he also knows Kipchoge runs in a different stratosphere.

Play Video 0:23 Mo Farah finishes third in the London Marathon with a new British record – video

“Eliud is a great athlete,” he said. “He makes it look so easy. I came across at 30km, absolutely knackered at that point, and he just changed gear and kicked on. But could you have got a better field? I beat Kenenisa Bekele, Daniel Wanjuri, so many good guys. I will take time to improve, as I took my time to win medals on the track.”

Kipchoge, meanwhile, calmly celebrated his 10th victory in 11 marathons - unprecedented in such a gruelling event where so many things can go wrong - as if nothing could have been easier. At his training camp in Kenya, where he takes his turn to clean out the toilets, they call him the “boss man”. In London, he again proved master of his domain.