The top 10 FR3.5 drivers of 2013

The 2013 Formula Renault 3.5 season was a battle of the Formula 1 juniors. And in a reversal of this year's F1 fortunes, it was McLaren that took a one-two ahead of Red Bull.

While Antonio Felix da Costa had entered the season as favourite for the title, a returning Kevin Magnussen and rookie star Stoffel Vandoorne had shown more than enough in testing to suggest they would be in the fight.

The top three engaged in a thrilling wheel-to-wheel battle in the opening laps of race two on the opening weekend at Monza, but from there it was Magnussen and Vandoorne who led the way in the points battle, before the Dane built up an untouchable head of steam in the final few races.

Even a disqualification from victory during the penultimate race weekend of the year couldn't derail Magnussen and DAMS, as they charged to a thoroughly deserved championship success that has propelled the 21-year-old to an F1 race seat with McLaren.

1. KEVIN MAGNUSSEN

Team: DAMS
Championship position: 1st (274 points)
Wins: 5
Poles: 8
Fastest laps: 3

The numbers say it all really: from 17 starts he scored points 15 times (16 if you include his lost Paul Ricard victory due to exclusion), and took 13 podiums, with an average finish of third.

For a driver who was looking to find consistency to match his speed this year, those numbers are emphatic proof. His rivals acknowledged that too; with a field of such quality this championship was never going to be won by whoever had the highest peaks - it would be the one with the lowest troughs.

Magnussen barely missed a beat all season, knowing when to concede when fighting at the front, but also having the tenacity to charge from 16th to second in the wet in Hungary, for example. It was enough to convince McLaren that he's ready to graduate to F1, too.

2. STOFFEL VANDOORNE

Team: Fortec Motorsports
Championship position: 2nd (214 points)
Wins: 4
Poles: 3
Fastest laps: 2

For the second year running the reigning Formula Renault Eurocup champion made a splash as a rookie in FR3.5. Unlike Robin Frijns, however, Vandoorne just missed out on the title.

He did win on his debut though and, until a point-less weekend in Austria mid-season took the wind out of his sails, he was a match for Magnussen.

In the end the eventual champion and DAMS found another gear over the final couple of weekends of the campaign, and that exaggerated the gap between the two McLaren juniors at the top of the standings.

3. ANTONIO FELIX DA COSTA

Team: Arden Caterham
Championship position: 3rd (172 points)
Wins: 3
Poles: 1
Fastest laps: 2

Four victories in the final five races of 2012 put da Costa on a pedestal heading into this year. It was always going to be hard to replicate that form - pre-season he said: "It's not like I'm going to win every race" - but it's easy to forget that he and Arden Caterham were on the pace from the start.

However, big results were lost to a puncture at Monza and not having enough fuel after qualifying at Aragon, which left him playing catch-up for the rest of the year. He admitted to making a couple of key errors too - particularly in qualifying at Spa and Spielberg - and the feeling in the team was that a few things that went its way in late-2012 didn't come off this season.

It proved costly, as Red Bull chose GP3 champion Daniil Kvyat to race for Toro Rosso in F1 next year.

4. NICO MULLER

Team: International Draco Racing
Championship position: 5th (143 points)
Wins: 2
Poles: 1
Fastest laps: 0

As so often seems to be the case in Muller's career, he didn't always have a car underneath him capable of fighting for wins. But whenever Draco was having a good weekend, he got the most out of the team's equipment.

His Monaco victory from pole was a majestic performance, and he proved that was no fluke with a dominant wet-weather victory at the Hungaroring.

It would have been fascinating to see him in a car capable of more wins this year.

5. WILL STEVENS

Team: P1 by Strakka Racing
Championship position: 4th (148 points)
Wins: 0 (best finish: 2nd)
Poles: 0 (best start: 2nd)
Fastest laps: 2

By mid-season Stevens was lurking on the outskirts of the championship fight, and deservedly so. He was putting together a consistent run of points finishes and building momentum, but a race victory never quite came.

One of his best chances could have been the season-opener at Monza, where he was one of the fastest drivers but was plagued by problems and incidents so never got to run at the front.

On the day Magnussen sealed the championship at Barcelona Stevens was the only driver anywhere near him, and his pressure even forced the champion into a mistake in the closing stages. By the end of the year that was an achievement to be proud of given Magnussen's form.

6. NIGEL MELKER

Team: Tech 1 Racing
Championship position: 6th (136 points)
Wins: 0 (best finish: 2nd)
Poles: 0 (best start: 2nd)
Fastest laps: 2

It took Melker a little while to get the Tech 1 car to his liking, but once he felt at home he went on a points-scoring run that briefly hauled him up to third in the standings.

A couple of retirements contributed to a scrappy end of the year, but that run of seven top-six finishes in eight races mid-season (including four podiums) cemented Melker as a factor towards the sharp-end.

He and the team didn't quite have the consistency to ever be considered a championship threat, but 2013 rebuilt some career momentum that was lost during a disastrous GP2 campaign last year.

7. MARCO SORENSEN

Team: Lotus (Gravity-Charouz)
Championship position: 7th (113 points)
Wins: 2
Poles: 2
Fastest laps: 1

After a strong rookie campaign in 2012, Sorensen came into the season as one of the likely title contenders. But his campaign crawled out of the starting blocks as his team and Renault Sport/Zytek chased a mysterious engine problem that was leaving him down on power.

He kick-started his year with a podium in Monaco, and was able to show what he could do when everything came together with a dominant weekend in Austria, where he took two wins from two poles.

He found a bit more consistency from then on, but his car seemed a bit better over one lap than it did a race distance.

As for the engine he had early in the year, Renault could find nothing wrong with it on the dyno once Sorensen had a new unit in the back of his car.

8. WILL BULLER

Team: Zeta Corse
Championship position: 11th (46 points)
Wins: 0 (best finish: 5th)
Poles: 0 (best start: 3rd)
Fastest laps: 0

Italian team Zeta Corse struggled to find drivers early in the year, and in the end it turned its attention to talent over cash in a bid to prove the strength of its package.

Buller joined for the Moscow weekend and completed the season, and during those 10 starts he made an impact.

He showed well in qualifying and race trim when Zeta had a good car, and he was often one of the more spectacular drivers in battle when putting up a fight against those in more consistent machinery. He made his point - he's worthy of a full season in a decent car at this level.

9. CARLOS SAINZ JR

Team: Zeta Corse
Championship position: 19th (22 points)
Wins: 0 (best finish: 6th)
Poles: 0 (best start: 5th)
Fastest laps: 1

Sainz seemed to suffer more dramas through his part-season than Buller did, but when he wasn't getting driven into or things weren't breaking on his car he was as much of a points challenger as the Brit.

The fact that he finished sixth on his FR3.5 debut - around the streets of Monte Carlo of all places - was mind-blowing as well.

His World Rally champion father Carlos Sr was a fan of gaining experience in bigger cars this year alongside a GP3 campaign, so it was a case of mission accomplished even if the results weren't always something to write home about.

10. SERGEY SIROTKIN

Team: ISR
Championship position: 9th (61 points)
Wins: 0 (best finish: 2nd)
Poles: 0 (best start: 2nd)
Fastest laps: 0

With four races in the book this year, Sirotkin was yet to qualify off the front two rows of the grid. At Aragon he netted a podium as a 17-year-old, but what followed was a run of bad qualifying results that stifled his opportunity to keep notching up points.

It was as that sequence was coming to an end that Sauber announced it was planning for him to race in F1 in 2014, something which he took in his stride for the rest of the year.

The results remained few and far between, but that wasn't all down to the driver, who felt that his F1 preparations were benefitting him as the year went on.

HONOURABLE MENTIONS

Arthur Pic could have finished higher than eighth in the championship had things come together for him. But a combination of him failing to find the consistency that was also missing in a promising 2012 campaign, and new team AV Formula being similarly up and down, meant he came away from the year with just one podium and a few too many retirements.

While it was on a different scale to his Draco team-mate Muller, Andre Negrao was also capable of troubling the frontrunners when he had a good car at his disposal. His highs tended to come more often in qualifying though, and were it not for an error while leading from pole in Hungary, perhaps he could have held Muller off for that victory.

Norman Nato was one of the crop of Formula Renault 2.0 graduates expected to shine, but he was rarely in the same ballpark as DAMS team-mate Magnussen. There were a handful of promising points finishes to begin with, but from there his season unraveled and he struggled to find any consistency. Perhaps it could have all been so different if he hadn't gone off having started from pole in the wet at Aragon.

Talking of that rain-soaked day in Spain, Nato's off set the scene for one of the more remarkable moments of the season - a dominant maiden victory for Carlos Huertas, who would only score another five points all year.