Our choices for best race drives of the 2023 F1 season

Now the dust has settled on the 2023 Formula 1 season and reviewshave been written, one ever-popular question is that of which racedrive was the best throughout the year. It is not necessarily acase of a driver simply winning a race and this being the bestdrive. Perhaps a driver has overcome a major disadvantage to plucka stunning result out of nowhere, or put in a defensive masterclassto hold back a pack of much-faster cars to bank the result. TheRacingNews365 team has selected three drives we feel were the bestof the season, in a particular order from a variety of drivers.Team members who voted: Jake Nichol, Rory Mitchell, Fergal Walsh.Do you agree with our choices for the best race drive of the 2023season? Let us know by voting in the poll at the bottom of thearticle and in the comments! Would you have chosen differently?Jake Nichol - Carlos Sainz, Italian Grand Prix It was difficult toselect from a shortlist of four my drive of 2023, with Sainz'sSingapore win, Alex Albon's defensive masterclass to seventh inCanada and Lando Norris's charge to fifth in Mexico City the othercontenders. But Sainz's run to third at Monza edges its way to thetop of the list, and pips his win at Marina Bay just. Ferraribrought a 'Monza Special' to its home race, and Sainz was thebetter of the two drivers throughout practice, and then stuck it onpole. With Max Verstappen up his gearbox for the opening 14 lapsbefore the Red Bull eventually sliced past on Lap 15 and pulledaway to a 12th win of the year. But after being passed byVerstappen, Sainz put in a dogged performance to expertly defendthe final podium from the sister SF-23 of Charles Leclerc. Themoves to defend were pulled off with millimetre precision thatcould have ended with a lot of Tifosi tears with even the slighestmisjudgement. Sainz won the race to the line by 0.184s for a firstpodium of the year. The reason for me that this tops theextraordinary piece of race-craft in Singapore to give Lando Norrisin P2 the DRS to defend from the charging Mercedes duo is that itcame in Singapore. Granted, overtaking is not easy at Monza eitherwith the low-downforce rear-wings not allowing vast amounts ofslipstream, but it is still far easier than in Singapore with itsbatch of 90-degree corners. A defensive drive is far more likely tosuceed in Singapore than at Monza. Rory Mitchell - Max Verstappen,Dutch Grand Prix When you're talking about one of Max Verstappen'sbest drives in 2023, you'd think it would be hard to chose from 19victories. Amidst his total domination at the wheel of the RB19, itcould be easy to think that it all comes easy to the team. Theyhave had their fair share of challenges throughout the season, butone stands out from the rest. The home advantage is said to beworth at least half a second at Silverstone, so at Zandvoort youcan probably bet it's worth the same when 100,000 of the orangearmy comes out. Amidst the tones of 'The Second Waltz' by AndreRieu in the pre-race buildup, dark clouds descended on the coastalcircuit from the North Sea. Fans battened down the hatches underponchos and clutched onto their plastic pint cups. When the heavensopened on the first lap, chaos ensued as everyone scrambled to thepits for Intermediate tyres. Verstappen got his call spot on,dropping down to fourth but applying the pressure on those whowaited out the storm at the behest of their engineers. Once he wassecond, his gap to teammate Sergio Perez went from 11.7s at thestart of the seventh lap, to 7.4s by the end - he was on fire. Asthe track dried he stopped earlier than Perez, produced ablistering out lap, and assumed the lead. Job done? Far from it.With 11 laps to go the heavens opened again, this time in a waymore intense manner. Perez was among those who skated off, withZhou Guanyu suffering the heaviest crash at Turn 1. Verstappenmanaged to keep it controlled for the most part, hanging on to thelead before the Red Flag came out. He would only need to lead thefield through a six lap dash to the finish, taking arguably one ofhis most iconic races victories of his dominant year. Fergal Walsh- Fernando Alonso, Sao Paulo Grand Prix The package of Aston Martinand Fernando Alonso was one of the biggest surprises of the year asit commenced the season in top form, scoring six podiums in eightraces. Alonso’s decision to leave Alpine at the end of 2022 seemedto be immediately justified as it allowed the Spaniard to tip hispodium tally beyond the century mark. However, podium opportunitiesdwindled as the season wore on, with Aston Martin finding itselfcaught by its rivals. Just a further two top-three scores cameAlonso’s way in the second half of the year - one of which was atthe Sao Paulo Grand Prix. For much of the race, Alonso was runningin third place, taking the position at a race restart following abrief red flag period. However, in the final laps, he came underpressure from Sergio Perez in the rapid RB19 and was overtaken onlap 70 of 71. The Spaniard didn’t give in and on the final tour ofthe circuit, he forced his way past Perez at Turn 4 before stayingahead in a drag race to the finish line, retaining the podium spotby just 0.053s.