Following an exhilarating season filled with fascinating storylines and subplots, we have compiled our 10-1 ranking of the top performi♎ng F1 drivers of the 2020 campaign.

This order is considering performances across the entire 17-round sea🏅son and respective competitiveness of each driver’s equipment.

10 - Valtteri Bottas

While 2020 will ultimately go down as another comprehensive defeat to Hamilton, there were positives to ta🅘ke from a season in which Valtteri Bottas played a big role in ensuring Mercedes kept up its streak of successive world championship triumphs.

Bottas may look back on his season with disappointm💮ent, having racked up two wins and five﷽ pole positions in a car that his teammate drove to victory 11 times, but going up against Hamilton at the top of his game is one of - if not the - toughest gig in F1.

Such was Hamilton’s superiority that Bottas ended up finishing the year a whopping 124 points behind the🏅 Briton, despite contesting an extra race when Hamilton missed the Sakhir GP due to contracting coronavirus.

It was perhaps t🍬his race under the ligh🌠ts in Bahrain that did the most damage to Bottas’ reputation in 2020, as he was outclassed and usurped by George Russell on his Mercedes debut.

Despite not fitting properly i♐nto Hamilton’s W11, Russell came within a whisker of beating Bottas to pole at his first attempt, before he snatched the lead and cꦍonfidently pulled out away from Bottas seemingly at ease.

A fairytale first victory went begging following Mercedes’ calamitous pit stop which also ended Bottas’ own hopes of achieving the win and getting a rare chance to shine H✨amilton’s 𓃲absence.

Bottas speed in q♔ualifying is undeniable, and although he lost out 11-5 to Hamilton on a Saturday, he proved a formidable opponent over one lap.

It was Sundays that let Bottas down as he struggled to match Hamilton’s tyre management skills and race craft. Misfortune also plagued Bottas at times, wi🌌th the Finn suffering a late puncture at the British GP and race-ending engine problem in Germany having led the opening stages, before his lowest of lows came in Turkey when he spun six times en route to finishing 14th and a lap down on 🍒Hamilton.

On his day - like in Austria and Russia - Bottas proved he could be the quicker of the two Mercedes on merit, but these standout performances were ultim♛ately scarce as Hamilton romped home to another title success.

Come back tomorrow to find out which driver has made position number 9 in our top 10 rankings...