On a sub-zero afternoon in east London, the England midfielder wiped out Alessandro Diamanti's earlier spot-kick to extend the Blues' lead to four points over Manchester United.
But despite seeing victory snatched from their grasp, 19th-placed West Ham could also breath a huge sigh of relief in the knowledge that this precious point keeps them off dreaded bottom spot going into Christmas Day.
With just six minutes on the clock, Lampard forced Robert Green to beat his swerving 20-yarder aside for the first corner of the afternoon and then Chelsea's second flag-kick saw Branislav Ivanovic head the former Hammer's cross inches over the crossbar.
Certainly those Blues corners were causing the Hammers all manner of problems and their third of the day was again met by Ivanovic, whose close-range header was chested off the line by the well-placed former Stamford Bridge midfielder, Scott Parker.
Midway through the half, Gianfranco Zola saw his injury woes mount, when Danny Gabbidon (hamstring) hobbled away to be replaced by James Tomkins.
With Guillermo Franco and the supporting Diamanti desperately trying feed off the few scraps that came their way the Hammers were posing little threat going forward.
Indeed, just when Franco looked to be finding his feet, Ricardo Carvalho collected his fourth yellow card of the season for upending the Mexican, who then joined him on the four-booking mark for a deliberate handball.
John Terry's long-ranger forced Green into a low save, before Drogba ripped a shot into the sidenetting, but just as the hitherto redundant Petr Cech was considering wandering off to do some late Christmas shopping, with just one minute of the first half remaining, the towering Czech found himself picking the ball out of the net.
For once, the unflustered Franco had found time and space to play in Jack Collison, who was upended by Ashley Cole and Diamanti held his nerve to both send the imposing figure of the orange-shirted Chelsea keeper the wrong way.
Carlo Ancelotti responded by making a double-substitution at the restart and, after Drogba had sent a sensational volley whistling past the far post from an impossible angle, Chelsea levelled in controversial circumstances.
TV replays clearly showed that Matthew Upson took the ball when he dived into Daniel Sturridge's studs, but referee Mike Dean's assistant flagged for another spot kick, which Lampard dispatched at the third attempt after his two previous conversions were ruled out for encroachment.
As the travelling Chelsea fans jokingly chanted 'three-one, three-one' Diamanti forced Cech into a full-length parry, while at the other end Joe Cole's shooting boots deserted him before he was replaced by Yuri Zhirkov for a frantic final quarter-hour.