3) Felipe Nasr
Competing in his third season of the GP2 Series, Felipe Nasr was expected to make a challenge for the Drivers’ championship, and the Carlin driver was involved in the battle at the front until the closing stages of the year.
The Brazilian finally took his first victory in the series in the Sprint race at the Circuit de Catalunya, and took additional wins at the Red Bull Ring, Silverstone and Spa-Francorchamps. As well as his four wins, he finished on the podium on six other occasions and finished third in the championship.
It was a very consistent season for Nasr, with the Brazilian only failing to secure points on three occasions during the year. He started the year with two top eight finishes in Bahrain before a podium and a win in Spain, and a further podium in the Monaco Feature race after taking advantage of a safety car period to move up the field after a disappointing qualifying session.
His first Feature race win came in Austria, and then won the Sprint race win in Great Britain to make up for a disappointing Feature race where he could only finish a distant seventh. He finished on the podium at both Hockenheim and the Hungaroring, but it was the races in Hungary where Nasr’s championship challenge took a big hit, with Jolyon Palmer overtaking the Brazilian with relative ease into the first corner during both races.
He fought back with a win in Belgium, but his title chances took a big hit in Monza races where he could only finish sixth twice, and then finished outside the points at Sochi, mainly due to a harsh drive-through penalty for exceeding track limits that he was forced to serve twice after taking it initially behind the safety car, that handed the title to Palmer. His fight-back in the Sprint race in Russia was stunning however, with the Brazilian climbing from his seventeenth on the grid to finish on the podium. He also closed the season with a podium in Abu Dhabi.
Nasr will race for the Sauber F1 Team in 2015, joining Marcus Ericsson in an all-new line-up at the Swiss team. He already had some F1 free practice running in five events during the 2014 season for the Williams F1 Team, and will be hoping to secure Sauber some valuable points that they did not achieve this past season.
