The five best race drives of F1 2019

Formula 1 celebrated its 1000th world championship race in 2019, and that total was up to 1,017 by the end of the season. Included in that new set of chapters are the wet weather thriller in Germany, the glorious restart chaos in Brazil, and, sadly, the dullness of the French Grand Prix.

But contained in those tales were hundreds more individual stories from each individual driver on the grid - those that ended in success and failure, fame and obscurity.

Here are the five best individual race drives (which are not ranked) from the F1 season just gone.

Charles Leclerc - Bahrain GP (3rd)

This dominant, unrewarded performance is significant because it proved Leclerc could cut it at the front under the most intense pressure.

On pole position for the first time in F1, a weaker-willed driver might have wilted after the start. His launch was good, but he struggled for grip in the second phase and in the early corners of the race as the rear tyres weren't quite up to temperature. That allowed Sebastian Vettel to pass on the run to the first corner, followed by Lewis Hamilton at Turn 4.

Then the fightback began. Leclerc overtook Hamilton, then closed on Vettel. On lap five, he reported he was quicker but was told to hold position for two laps - he passed Vettel at the end of the main straight on the next lap.

He was just under seven seconds clear of Lewis Hamilton on lap 46 when a short circuit within an injection system control unit meant his engine dropped a cylinder and left him a sitting duck. With fuel problems, caused by spending longer on the straights thanks to a loss of around 25mph top speed, all he could do was manage the situation.

Hamilton and Vettel inevitably passed him, but the failures of Nico Hulkenberg's and Daniel Ricciardo's Renaults triggered a safety car that saved Leclerc from Max Verstappen and allowed him to salvage his first podium.

Lewis Hamilton - Monaco GP (1st)

Winning at Monaco from pole position is seen as straightforward. But the situation Hamilton found himself in this year made his victory under the most intense pressure remarkable. The first part of the race was simple enough, but Mercedes bolted on medium Pirellis, rather than hards, for the final 67 laps.

The ensuing gripes were entirely justified as, under pressure from Max Verstappen - who carried a five-second penalty and had little to lose in making an attack - the stress level rose. "I don't know what you were thinking when you put these tyres on, man - you need to hope for a miracle," he reported.

But he held on, surviving Verstappen's optimistic lunge at the chicane on lap 76 of 78 and the resulting clash to win.

"Monaco was pretty special because we get things right most of the time, but we sure as hell didn't in Monaco," says Mercedes technical director James Allison. "It was a race of great skill and delicacy.

"Monaco's difficult to pass at but that tyre was within a whisker of all the rubber going. He was able to just eke out a life of those tyres, just, to get the job done. That was proper skillful and all the way through there was the frustration and the anxiety venting, but never once relenting from the skill that he expressed while doing it."

Max Verstappen - Austrian GP (1st)

Starting from second on the grid might have made Verstappen's path to a first win of the season fairly straightforward. But an overly aggressive clutch setting and pre-race hooning changing the level of grip on his grid slot led to a disastrous launch. The anti-stall kicked in, and he slid down to eighth place.

Team-mate Pierre Gasly let him past, but on the first stint Verstappen had to get past Lando Norris and Kimi Raikkonen for fifth. Lewis Hamilton had his front wing replaced at the pitstops, so Verstappen moved up to fourth. But he was still just over 13s behind Charles Leclerc in first, with Sebastian Vettel and Valtteri Bottas also ahead.

But Verstappen had the pace, and the advantage of having gone 10 laps further than Vettel and Bottas and nine beyond Leclerc in the first stint for a tyre offset. He caught and passed Vettel and Bottas and, with 15 and a half laps to go, chased after Leclerc.

He gradually closed the gap to the point where he attacked around the outside of the Turn 3 hairpin with three and a half laps to go. Leclerc held on, but a lap later left the inside line clear at the same corner. Verstappen went up the inside and took the lead and victory.

The stewards looked at the move but decided against a penalty. Verstappen, after the poor start, had driven brilliantly.

Sergio Perez - Mexican GP (7th)

"We executed a perfect race," was Perez's verdict shortly after finishing seventh - heading the midfield - in the Mexican Grand Prix. In a season full of outstanding Sunday drives for Perez, this one stands as the best.

While he had one crucial advantage over his midfield-leading rivals in that he qualified 11th and therefore had free tyre choice, the Racing Point was clearly slower in race trim than the McLarens, Toro Rossos and Renaults. Starting on medium Pirellis, Perez ran 11th in the early stages before passing the two soft-shod Toro Rossos, and the punctured Max Verstappen, to run eighth. Both McLarens hit trouble in the pitstops, which promoted Perez to sixth.

Although, inevitably, Verstappen caught and passed him, Perez's real battle was with Ricciardo. Perez stopped for hard rubber on lap 20, but the Renault driver went to lap 50 on hards before stopping for mediums.

Perez's advantage peaked at 4.8s on Ricciardo's out-lap before it started to tumble. But Perez's characteristicly brilliant tyre management meant he could still lap within half a second of Ricciardo.

Ricciardo did catch Perez, but launched what he called a 30/70 move at the first corner, locking up and going off. He rejoined and caught Perez again, but he was never able to make another move.

Perez's tyre management and ability to execute a race brilliantly had paid off again.

Carlos Sainz Jr - Brazilian GP (3rd)

Starting last thanks to an ignition wiring problem in Q1 at a track where the McLaren wasn't at its best was an unpromising start. But Sainz drove brilliantly in a chaotic race to earn his first podium.

There was plenty of overtaking, with eight of the drivers he got ahead passed in a straight fight on track. He also kept his head while others were losing theirs as the Kevin Magnussen/Daniel Ricciardo and Lewis Hamilton/Alex Albon collisions handed him another four places.

Sainz also had to exhibit his tyre management abilities, taking his softs to lap 29 of 71 then running to the end on hards. While the two late safety cars helped him by eliminating 10 laps of hard running, they also worked against him and allowed the two-stoppers to get closer. Overall, strategy only gave him three places.

The final restart elevates this drive to the highest level. On shot rubber, which had lost temperature under the safety car, he struggled for traction from the slow rolling restart and reached the first corner still ahead of Kimi Raikkonen - but locked up. This allowed the Alfa Romeo to attack and nose ahead through the Turn 5 left-hander, but Sainz held firm to finish fourth on the road.

The only downside is he wasn't able to take his place on the podium proper as Hamilton's penalty for hitting Albon came a little later.