The top 10 F2 drivers of 2009

1. Andy Soucek

F2 starts: 16
Poles: 2
Wins: 7
Championship position: 1st

Seven wins put him in a league of his own. He got his misfortune out of the way early on with a mechanical failure at Valencia and an off day at Brno, but he was never outside the top four thereafter.

2. Robert Wickens

F2 starts: 16
Poles: 5
Wins: 2
Championship position: 2nd

Made a flying start with a pair of wins in the Valencia season opener, but lost his way shortly afterwards, through a mixture of bad luck and mistakes, and let frustrations get the better of him. He was back on form by the end of the year and was still the only one to really rival Soucek for pace.

3. Kazim Vasiliauskas

F2 starts: 16
Poles: 1
Wins: 1
Championship position: 7th

The revelation of the year. The Lithuanian sprung a surpise from the start with third at Valencia, but it was the second half of the season where he really impressed - outscoring everyone but Soucek in the final seven races. He capped his fine year with a dominant victory at Imola.

4. Mirko Bortolotti

F2 starts: 16
Poles: 0
Wins: 1
Championship position: 4th

The Italian was caught up in too many incidents to really be a force in the title fight, but he had the speed to be a fixture in the top three most weekends and can be happy when his experience is compared to that of Soucek and Wickens.

5. Mikhail Aleshin

F2 starts: 16
Poles: 1
Wins: 1
Championship position: 3rd

He was always there or thereabouts, but never really stepped up to lead the way and he spent most of the year in the shadows of fellow Red Bull drivers Wickens and Bortolotti. More was expected from him given his previous experience, although he was the last one left standing with a chance of stopping Soucek.

6. Philipp Eng

F2 starts: 16
Poles: 1
Wins: 1
Championship position: 8th

Eng started the year strongly and was even in the title hunt after his Brands Hatch victory, but he struggled to repeat that front running form and faded away quietly as the year wore on.

7. Julien Jousse

F2 starts: 16
Poles: 1
Wins: 1
Championship position: 5th

In spite of his experience, Jousse didn't seem to get the hang of F2 until Donington Park - five rounds in - where he was outstanding. But he never reached that peak again in the last three rounds.

8. Tobias Hegewald

F2 starts: 16
Poles: 3
Wins: 2
Championship position: 6th

He absolutely dominated the Spa weekend, even Soucek had no answer for him. But he was never the same force on the rest of the circuits that he didn't have such an experience advantage on.

9. Nicola de Marco

F2 starts: 16
Poles: 1
Wins: 0
Championship position: 10th

A bit of an enigma. He was superb in qualifying at the start and end of the year - including a shock pole at Brno, but his form went AWOL between. He was a frontrunner one day and a tailender the next, with no obvious reason why.

10. Milos Pavlovic

F2 starts: 16
Poles: 0
Wins: 0
Championship position: 9th

Serbia's finest was always on the fringes but is another that just never broke through. Two podiums was a pretty meagre return for a driver of his experience.