Comment by 4cao

No VPN in my case but the IP address changes every 24h, and the browser is set to clear all data on exit, so I can't really say if Google's suggestion to try logging in from a "known" browser and location would have changed anything.

A good (unofficial) summary of the account recovery process, if anyone in the same situation wants to try their luck:

http://gmailaccountrecovery.blogspot.com/