TBK-Light.com

Vandoorne tops both sessions today (with DAMS), also drove the fastest time of the 3 days with a 1.48.657.

The top 10 GP2 drivers of 2013
This year's GP2 championship went down to the wire, but while 11 different drivers claimed victory, one stood out above the pack. CHARLES BRADLEY picks out his top 10 drivers of 2013

By Charles Bradley
AUTOSPORT Editor


GP2 2013

As national stereotypes go, Fabio Leimer was the epitome of Swiss clockwork efficiency - for the second half of the GP2 season at least. Although he didn't lead the championship at the end of a race weekend until September, he'd built huge momentum by then and fended off Sam Bird's late title charge with precision - apart from crashing on the slowing-down lap in Singapore!

Leimer was 66 points in arrears of Rapax's pacesetter Stefano Coletti until they collided at Silverstone, from whence Coletti's season fell apart and he only scored again once over the remainder of the year.

It also marked Racing Engineering's second GP2 title after Giorgio Pantano's success in 2008 (100 per cent reliability it should be noted), and was Leimer's fourth full season in the category - his second with the Spanish team. Like Pantano, however, he'll find the step into F1 difficult unless he boasts major financial support.

Sam Bird GP2 2013

1. SAM BIRD

Team: Russian Time
Championship position: 2nd (181 points)
Wins: 5
Poles: 2
Fastest laps: 3

Began the season with the handicap of a brand-new outfit in Russian Time, and it showed with early-season hiccups, but steered the ship impressively to the teams' title at the first attempt.

Five wins showed he possesses more maturity than ever; jury still out on whether he can ever seal a title. That stall on the grid in the Yas Marina feature race, after he'd outqualified Leimer, will haunt him for a while.

His stock has never been higher, and he's had plenty of sim time with Mercedes Grand Prix, but is all that enough to find him a berth in F1 without the fat wallet of others?

Fabio Leimer GP2

2. FABIO LEIMER

Team: Racing Engineering
Championship position: 1st (201 points)
Wins: 3
Poles: 1
Fastest laps: 1

Became Mr Consistency by the end of the year, but looked anything but a title contender after a wretched run in Barcelona and Monaco.

Convincing feature race wins in Bahrain and Malaysia were offset by shunts in the Sunday races there.

Really got into his stride in the second half of the season, when his worst finish was sixth!

Can you honestly see him on the F1 grid next year, though? It seems that money is talking more than track records at the moment - and it's not as if his 'home team' Sauber is particularly flush either.

James Calado GP2

3. JAMES CALADO

Team: ART Grand Prix
Championship position: 3rd (157 points)
Wins: 2
Poles: 0
Fastest laps: 0

Started the year as a clear title favourite, but not all appeared well chez ART.

After his great rookie season in 2012, he realised in pre-season testing that the car needed more pace. Started well enough with second in Sepang opener, only to blot his copybook with a shunt in race two.

Barcelona was ruined by another first-lap crash, but he managed to salvage his season by snatching third in points through sheer tenacity rather than speed.

Two sprint race wins weren't the step he was looking for after that impressive 2012, but F1 Fridays with Force India have at least ensured career momentum.

Felipe Nasr GP2

4. FELIPE NASR

Team: Carlin
Championship position: 4th (154 points)
Wins: 0
Poles: 0
Fastest laps: 0

No wins, no poles, no fastest laps - how could this be? The Brazilian was the model of consistency at the start of the season, missing a Bahrain win by 0.008s, but his heavy-scoring form just faded away.

His average race result was third across the first four race weekends - easily title-winning form - but non-finishes at Silverstone (not his fault), Spa (his fault) and Monza (not his fault) were costly and his challenge petered out.

You wondered whether he simply second-guessed himself on too many occasions, and then panicked when it started to go awry.

Jolyon Palmer GP2

5. JOLYON PALMER

Team: Carlin
Championship position: 7th (119 points)
Wins: 2
Poles: 1
Fastest laps: 2

One thing is for sure, his reputation as a top overtaker is assured. What needs improving now is his qualifying speed (Singapore pole shows he can do it), and just a little more consistency.

A bit like his dad, he's very brave in battle, but needs to keep an eye on the bigger picture too. Two great feature race wins were offset by disasters at Spa and Monza, although neither were his fault.

He's staying in GP2 next year, and should start as a title favourite if he picks the right team and enjoys a good pre-season.

Marcus Ericsson

6. MARCUS ERICSSON

Team: DAMS
Championship position: 6th (121 points)
Wins: 1
Poles: 2
Fastest laps: 0

Before the Nurburgring, he languished 19th in points in one of the series' fastest cars. Then he won, and scored another four podiums that rocketed him to sixth in points.

His speed is not in question, but his all-round game is. Whenever there's some on-track heat-of-battle racing, you can rest assured he always comes off worst.

And after four years in the series, and only three wins, you wonder if his glass ceiling has been reached.

Stefano Coletti 2013

7. STEFANO COLETTI

Team: Rapax
Championship position: 5th (135 points)
Wins: 3
Poles: 1
Fastest laps: 1

The curious case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde: Dr Jekyll's average finish for the first 11 races was fifth; then Mr Hyde took up residence and that average plummeted to 17th.

Quite why this happened, nobody seems sure. His meltdown certainly wasn't pretty and was centred on his voracious appetite for tyres, that's always been an Achilles' heel.

But it didn't seem to matter a jot in the first half of the season, when he seemed free to push to his heart's content as those behind drove to a delta. Arthur C Clarke would have had a field day explaining this.

Alexander Rossi GP2

8. ALEXANDER ROSSI

Team: Caterham Racing
Championship position: 9th (92 points)
Wins: 1
Poles: 1
Fastest laps: 1

The season ended too soon for the American, who missed the opening round (whoever thought Ma Qing Ha was a better bet needs their head reading!) but proved his quality with a podium on his series return.

Seemed to struggle for consistency during mid-season, although the pace was often there, but was back on form from Monza onwards and ended the season with his first win in the category.

Given a full pre-season, there's a title contender here. And with no American currently in F1, here's someone with a USP to get there (Conor Daly would like to argue this).

Jon Lancaster GP2

9. JON LANCASTER

Team: Hilmer Motorsport
Championship position: 11th (73 points)
Wins: 2
Poles: 0
Fastest laps: 2

Quite remarkable return to the series for the underfunded Yorkshireman, whose presence on the grid at all probably owes a lot to the recent upturn in the housing market! Good on Franz Hilmer for giving him the chance to show his skills.

Third in his first start at Barcelona, his two sprint race wins - at Silverstone and Nurburgring - came despite qualifying 16th and 17th!

If he can sort his single-lap pace, the rest is almost there. Except the funding, so fingers crossed those UK property prices continue to rise.

Robin Frijns 2013

10. ROBIN FRIJNS

Team: Hilmer Motorsport
Championship position: 15th (47 points)
Wins: 1
Poles: 0
Fastest laps: 0

His Barcelona victory proved just how good he is: returning to the scene of the controversial 2012 Formula Renault 3.5 title decider (his adversary Jules Bianchi now well established in F1, of course). It's a travesty that his career has stalled.

His win, and runner-up spot in the sprint race there too, kickstarted Hilmer Motorsport's season, but lowly points finishes at the Nurburgring and Spa weren't enough to keep his free drive as someone came calling with cash.

Surely someone has the wit to spot there's an F1-standard talent going begging here?

HONOURABLE MENTIONS

Stephane Richelmi made a big step forward this year with reigning champions DAMS but failed to win a race despite taking pole at the Nurburgring.

The talented Tom Dillmann helped Russian Time to the all-important teams' championship, but was another to miss out on a win despite a pole (Budapest).

Adrian Quaife-Hobbs scored a reversed-grid win at Monza after switching to Hilmer from MP Motorsport, with whom he'd previously scored a podium at Monaco.

Quite how Arden's duo of GP3 champion Mitch Evans and Johnny Cecotto Jr finished the season 14th and 16th is a mystery that's partly solved by Cecotto hitting everything but the safety car.

Evans at least scored four podiums, but let a win slip through his grasp by not pushing early enough at the Hungaroring and allowing the quite ordinary Nathanael Berthon score the unlikeliest of victories.