The season's report card is a mixture of outstanding to average in terms of performance and results so I have compiled my top ten drivers and let the debate begin.

Dux of the class was Lewis Hamilton in the Mercedes Benz claiming his sixth world title, and third in a row, to finish the year with 11 wins in 17 podiums, lifting his overall win total to 84 in 151 podiums from 250 starts.

The only blemish in an outstanding year was scoring just (by his standards) five pole positions and unloading Alex Albon in the Red Bull in Brazil and depriving the rookie of his first podium.

Second was a toss up between Max Verstappen in the Red Bull and Charles Leclerc in the Ferrari and all things considered I gave it to Leclerc bearing in mind it was only his second season in F1 and he proved to be more than a match for his four-time world champion team mate Sebastian Vettel.

During the season Leclerc scored seven pole positions and two wins in ten podiums to finish fourth in the championship on 264 points.

Verstappen scored two pole positions and three wins in his nine podium results to finish third in the championship on 278 points.

More importantly it was his tenacity and commitment to take the fight up to the big two, Mercedes and Ferrari, that marks him out as a future world champion.

His sometimes-arrogant take-no-prisoners attitude should provide a great rivalry with Leclerc in the future.

Valtteri Bottas matched team mate Hamilton's five pole positions and drove extremely well to score four wins in 15 podium results and finish second in the championship on 326 points but 87 points behind Hamilton.

Fifth place may surprise but it goes to Carlos Sainz Jr from the much-improved McLaren team with 13 top ten qualifying results and the same number of top ten race results to finish sixth in the championship on 96 points.

There is no doubt he was pushed by his rookie team mate Lando Norris who upstaged the experienced Spaniard by outqualifying him 11 to ten so imagine the rivalry in 2020.

Rookie driver Alexander Albon started the year with Toro Rosso and scored a best result of sixth in five top ten results in 12 races before replacing the underperforming Pierre Gasly at Red Bull.

In nine races he scored a fourth, four fifths and three sixths to finish eighth in the championship on 92 points but more importantly proved he could mix it with the big guns.

Twelve months ago I questioned his move to Formula 1 suggesting he lacked the necessary experience but I'm happy to report I'm now eating a large slice of humble pie.

Sergio Perez was the quiet achiever and while he only scored four top ten qualifying results and was well down the list in the other 17, he raced extremely well to record 11 top ten results.

He outqualified team mate Lance Stroll 19 to two and in my view is one of the most underrated drivers in the field.

By his standards Sebastian Vettel had a poor year with far too many mistakes due to poor decisions by he and the team.

He was well and truly overshadowed by Leclerc who outqualified the German 12 to nine and his one win in nine podiums and only two pole positions left him fifth in the championship on 240 points.

I'm being a bit generous giving him eighth and the only saving grace is that when everything was right he displayed the form we are used to.

Daniel Ricciardo comes in at ninth despite only qualifying in the top ten in half the races and scoring just eight top ten race results to finish ninth in the championship on 54 points.

His switch from Red Bull to Renault for 2019 was questioned by many and even more so now as the Renault has proved to be way below par relative to the top three.

It would have been easy to just cruise in a very uncompetitive car and put the millions in the bank, but to be fair Ricciardo has put his heart and soul into the season and that alone is worth a spot in the ten.

The final spot goes to McLaren's Lando Norris who despite his rookie status qualified in the top ten 16 times and scored 11 top ten race results.

The fact that two rookies (Albon and Norris) have performed so well augers well for the future.

Special mention must go to rookie Williams driver George Russell whose talent was wasted at the once-great team.

As a measure of his ability he recorded the fastest time on day two of testing in Abu Dhabi on Wednesday guest driving a Mercedes with a time that was three seconds faster than in the Williams on Sunday.