Our choices for the best overtakes of a thrilling 2023 F1 season

What's in an overtake?

The RacingNews365 team have each selected their best overtake from the 2023 season - and each team member has come up with wildly different situations.

For one, it was a last lap banzai move on the brakes, for another it was a first lap pass for the lead while the other was a fantastic act of race-craft between two of the all-time greats.

Read on to find out who Jake Nichol, Rory Mitchell and Fergal Walsh selected - and tell us your overtake of the year in the comments and by voting in the poll!

Jake Nichol - Fernando Alonso on Lewis Hamilton, Bahrain

One of the big questions from pre-season testing was whether Aston Martin's new-found pace was real and if it could live with Red Bull.

While no team had such luck, the AMR23 did prove to be the closest thing to a challenger in the opening rounds, although in Bahrain, it was Ferrari's Charles Leclerc set for P3.

Thanks to Fernando Alonso's ability to get himself in the wrong car at the wrong time, one thing we have been robbed of as fans is two of the very best drivers racing wheel-to-wheel on a regular basis - but Alonso and Lewis Hamilton rolled back the years in Sakhir.

On fresher tyres, Alonso first tried a move up the hill into Turn 4, but a squirt of throttle sent him wide and allowed Hamilton back through, but Alonso never makes the same mistake twice.

Thinking where he could surprise Hamilton, Alonso took a wider line into the Turn 8 hairpin on Lap 37 to get better traction and looked as if he was going to hang it around the outside of the tricky downhill braking for Turns 9 and 10.

But as the last second, he jinked to the inside, where Hamilton was taking the conventional racing line as the Aston sailed past.

It was an act of race-craft Alonso knew he could try with Hamilton, who is harsh, but fair in battle.

The move also allowed Alonso to bank a podium after Leclerc conked out and Carlos Sainz was made light work of.

Rory Mitchell - Lando Norris on Max Verstappen, Silverstone

Mansell Mania, Johnny Herbert on the podium, 'Through goes Hamilton' and now 'Lando Norris leads the British Grand Prix' can be added to the phrases that gets 160,000 fans roaring at Silverstone.

Norris' move on the inside of Verstappen for the lead of the British GP has to be one of the highlights for me, simply because it looked like McLaren might be on for the win.

Red Bull were already struggling with starts, which enabled Norris to pull the move off on the inside and retain the lead through the tricky first couple of corners.

Norris was pushing his luck with the stewards down the Wellington Straight by weaving to break the tow, but Verstappen was already having to fend off a challenge for Oscar Piastri.

Their tyre advantage at the end of the race added a bit of jeopardy to Max Verstappen's eventual win, and gave us all some hope that Red Bull was not going to white wash the season. Oh well, fun while it lasted...

Fergal Walsh - Charles Leclerc on Sergio Perez, Las Vegas

The stakes were high late on between Sergio Perez and Charles Leclerc at the inaugural race around the Las Vegas Strip Circuit.

Running in second place, Leclerc made a mistake on lap 43 of 50 that dropped him behind Perez and gift Red Bull the prospect of a one-two finish with Max Verstappen leading the duo.

Determined to not let the mistake overshadow his race, Leclerc got back in pursuit of Perez and closed the gap as the laps ticked down. On the final lap and heading into the final braking zone, Leclerc lunged his car down Perez’s inside and got the position, promoting himself back to the runner-up spot.

“Once I went for it I was pretty confident it would work out,” Leclerc said after the race. “It was basically the only opportunity I had. It’s the only place where you can really go for an overtake. And I also had in mind that Checo had made a small mistake four or five laps before so I knew he was being cautious a little bit on braking.

“And in the second to last lap, I started to recharge the batteries in order to get ready for that last lap and it worked out. So it was obviously very, very tight but I was really happy and I really enjoyed the fight.”