My Festive Top Ten

Apologies for the radio silence in the last week, a combination of a short holiday and a few technical problems while I was away.

I've enjoyed this season of racing as much as any I can recall. There were many fantastic races and some strong performances. As always there are more drivers disappointed with their season than delighted but we had some breakthrough performances and a new elite has been established. Here is my choice for the Top ten of the year

1. Fernando Alonso - never gave up even when the Renault wasn't working well. Always wrung the maximum from the car and his mistakes were through trying hard, rather than sloppiness. He's a class act.

2. Robert Kubica - only one mistake I can think of, in the rain at Silverstone. Hurt by BMW working hard to save his team mate's season. Some sublime performances throughout the year, dropped off a bit at the end.

3. Lewis Hamilton - deserved his drivers title because his best performances this year were better than anyone else's and he is set to be the best out there. He's not quite there yet, though.

4.Felipe Massa - OK, hands up, I admit it, he's better than I thought he was and he's still improving. Only poor luck robbed him of the title he would have deserved. Showed great sporting dignity in Brazil. Respect.

5. Sebastian Vettel - what a year for the young man. Stunning win from pole at soggy Monza and was always quick once Toro Rosso got the car going fast in July.

6. Mark Webber - some great drives earlier in the year, he found consistency and showed that he's got the credentials, but the Red Bull package went off the boil after Silverstone. Fingers crossed for the broken leg.

7. Timo Glock - his performance in Hungary was brilliant. Showed very well against Jarno Trulli this year.

8. Kimi Raikkonen - not one of his better years, in fact probably his worst in F1, but his standards are so high. The car went away from him as it developed. Needs a big year next year.

9. Sebastien Bourdais - he was overshadowed by his team mate pretty much all year and poor luck robbed him of some big results. Finsished the season well.

10. Heikki Kovalainen - A difficult first year at McLaren, where he was often quite close to Lewis in qualifying pace but not in race pace, which meant not enough podiums.

I hope you all have a great Christmas. Thanks for reading the blogs and please be sure to spread the word. I've got some exciting plans for this space in 2009.