Patronise F1

It wasn't a classic year for the F1-supporting GP2 Series in 2010, but as the latest crop of promising rookies struggled for consistency, it was longtime GP2 driver Pastor Maldonado who surged to a dominant championship victory.

To argue that Maldonado somehow doesn't deserve his crown would be farcical. No matter his previous middling form in the series, the Venezuelan driver dominated this season's championship, securing a record six straight feature race wins to ensure that he had secured the title well before the end of the season.

It was a level of domination that no GP2 champion has ever achieved in the past. Only last year's winner Nico Hulkenberg has ever secured the title before the final weekend of the season. Such was Maldonado's level of domination that he still finished 16 points clear of his nearest rival despite failing to score a single point in the final six races of the year. All this achieved with the relatively unfancied Rapax (neé Piquet Sports) team, who also clinched the Team's crown for the year.

It was that string of feature race wins that shored the title up for Maldonado, but aside from that he scored just two more podiums and four additional points finishes in the other 14 races. It was that complicated mix of domination one race and anonymity the next that allowed his rivals to stay in touch for so long, but he never really looked likely to throw away the title.

But, in order to try and justify the fact that the championship had been so clearly won by a man who had secure just four wins in three previous seasons in the formula, it is quite easy to discredit the Venezuelan driver's success by pointing to the overall quality of the field, and the problems his main rivals suffered.

True, there was an indication that the overall standard of driver had dipped for 2010, with the new influx of talent somewhat stymied by many teams sticking to the same old dependable names (the original 24 car grid for the season opener in Barcelona only featured 10 true rookies, and the likes of perennial GP2 failure Luca Filippi were drafted in by teams as the season went on), but there were a few standouts.

In particular, the always-strong ART Grand Prix team opted for Jules Bianchi and Sam Bird, two rookies who proved themselves to be super-fast but also unreliable in 2010. Both drivers suffered from a tendency to get caught up in other incidents, and although between them they took four of the ten available pole positions, they won just one race all year, Bird's triumph in the Monza feature.

It was only the second time in the history of the series that ART failed to get a driver in the top two in the championship, and although Bianchi proved himself to be super-fast in qualifying and Bird proved an adept overtaker, neither were consistent enough to challenge for the title. It will be interesting to see which of them ART keep for 2011, given that they have already confirmed their GP3 champion Esteban Gutierrez in one seat for next season.

Maldonado's strongest competition came from Mexican Sergio Perez, who improved his performances after a quiet debut season in 2009 for Arden by excelling for the Barwa Addax squad. He won five races throughout the season, including a barely credible performance to win the final feature race of the season in Abu Dhabi by over 20 seconds.

Perez also put in some sterling drives through the field. Having been disqualified from the Turkey feature race for being underweight, starting the sprint race from the back of the grid, he charged up the order for an ultimately pointless seventh place finish. He was also made to regret his four DNFs throughout the season, which hindered his chances of the title.

Elsewhere there were few standout performances. Former Williams tester Dani Clos hit back after being described as 'utterly hapless' by Patty's own completely inaccurate season preview to end up fourth overall in the standings following a consistent season, while iSport driver Oliver Turvey showed signs of promise after a dreadful first third of the season by securing eleven straight points finishes towards the end of the season.

There was disappointment for Turvey's team mate Davide Valsecchi, who came into the season as the dominant GP2 Asia champion and among the title favourites. He scored just three podiums all season, including a lonely win in the final reverse grid sprint race of the season.

As for the season as a whole, it remains to be seen if Maldonado and Perez are the real deal, or if this was merely a Pantano-in-2008-esque championship, a year when a couple of dogged GP2 mainstays swept the board in a season of low rookie talent.

Both the top two in the championship look set to graduate to F1 though, with Perez confirmed at Sauber, and Maldonado looking like securing a Williams seat, so that will be the acid test for where we place this GP2 year in the future.

The 2010 GP2 Awards

- Driver of the Season
Pastor Maldonado. It would be safe to say that there remains a sceptical edge to both Maldonado's title victory and his now seemingly inevitable rise to the F1 grid with Williams as being little more than the lucky tale of a man in the right place at the right time, a journeyman strolling to the title while the rookie talent hit trouble followed by a pay drive at a down-on-sponsors F1 team. But that only tells half the tale, and at times this season Maldonado's performances have been epic. He won the Turkey feature race by nearly 20 seconds, and his record six feature race wins in a row see him a deserving champion. Though that doesn't mean he doesn't still have a lot to prove in Formula One next year.

- Team of the Season
Rapax Team. A team that has been yo-yo-ing around the GP2 grid, from title contenders to backmarkers and back, since they were created in 2005 as Piquet Sports, a vehicle designed to force Nelson Piquet Jr into Formula One. Once that questionable feat was achieved, the team lapsed into the wilderness, and won just two races in the three years since Piquet Jr left them. But the team were galvanised by the return of their former driver Maldonado in 2010, and managed to secure the Teams Championship for the first time in their history in a tense three-way shootout with Addax and ART at the final rounds in Abu Dhabi.

- Unsung Hero of Season
Sam Bird. Didn't really do enough over the course of the season to suggest that his more illustrious team mate Bianchi was the pick of ART's 2010 crop, but Bird could easily have sorted out a title challenge were it not for a series of innocent collisions and reliability failings. His Monaco feature race summed up his level of luck this season, as he saw a strong recovery drive from 11th on the grid ruined by a botched pit stop, and then added insult to injury when he picked up a 25-second penalty for cutting the chicane. Achieved plenty of notoriety as being 2010's 'Mr Overtaker', though granted that is not a particularly big F1 requirement these days. He may well lose out in 2011, especially given he'll likely have to settle for a new team if ART opt to keep the Ferrari-backed Bianchi alongside Esteban Gutierrez.

- Failure of the Season
Giedo van der Garde. Came into the 2010 season with a year of GP2 experience behind him, a strong drive with Addax and a place firmly among the pre-season title favourites. But it never really looked like happening for the Dutchman this year. He failed to notch up a single race win, and was completely outshone by his team mate Perez. Oddly, though, given how the GP2 to F1 graduation method works right now, he is still in line for a potential 2011 F1 drive thanks to his sponsor backing. Sigh.

Season Results

Drivers Championship

13 Giacomo Ricci 16pts, 14 Romain Grosjean 14pts, 15 Alvaro Parente 13pts, 16 Michael Herck 12pts, 17 Marcus Ericsson 11pts, 18 Adrian Zaugg 9pts, 19 Fabio Leimer 8pts, 20 Luca Filippi 5pts, 21 Rodolfo Gonzalez 4pts, 22 Albert Valerio 4pts, 23 Johnny Cecotto Jr 3pts, 24 Josef Kral 3pts, 25 Max Chilton 3pts, 26 Edoardo Piscopo 2pts, 27 Brendon Hartley 1pt, 28 Ho-Pin Tung 0pts, 29 Vladimir Arabadzhiev 0pts, 30 Fabrizio Crestani 0pts, 31 James Jakes 0pts, 32 Federico Leo 0pts. 

Constructors Championship

7 Arden International Motorsport 32pts, 8 DPR 28pts, 9 Super Nova Racing 19pts, 10 Scuderia Coloni 18pts, 11 Trident Racing 14pts, 12 Ocean Racing Technology 11pts.