For most of the season, the championship battle revolved around a pair of British drivers, returning driver Jolyon Palmer and Formula Renault UK graduate Dean Stoneman. Stoneman and Palmer won eleven of the season's eighteen races – Stoneman won six and Palmer five – but more podiums for Stoneman helped him in the long run, and eventually sealed the championship title, and a prize test for the Williams F1 team, with a race to spare.[1] Palmer finished a comfortable second place in the standings, 42 points behind Stoneman and 85 ahead of his nearest rival.
Third place in the standings remained a five-way battle until the final race with newcomers Sergey Afanasyev of Russia, another British driver Will Bratt and Belgium's Benjamin Bailly, as well as returnees Kazim Vasiliauskas of Lithuania and Austria's Philipp Eng all in contention for the remaining FIA Super Licence awarded to the top three championship finishers. Despite not winning a race, it was Afanasyev that prevailed, scoring points in all but three races including four podiums. Vasiliauskas' only victory of the season came in the final race of the season in Valencia, and allowed him to jump from seventh pre-race to an end fourth place in the standings, four points behind Afanasyev. Bratt finished fifth, winless but with four podiums, ahead of three-time winner Eng by two points and Bailly, a winner at his home round of Zolder was 12 points further behind. Eighth-placed Nicola de Marco was the only other race-winner on the season, winning at Brno and Valencia.
Regulation changes
As announced at the FIA's World Motor Sport Council meeting in December 2009, Formula Two cars in the 2010 season had a base power of 425 brake horsepower (317 kW; 431 PS), up from 400 brake horsepower (298 kW; 406 PS) in 2009.[2] The overboost also increased from 50 brake horsepower (37 kW; 51 PS) to 55 brake horsepower (41 kW; 56 PS), giving a maximum power of 480 brake horsepower (358 kW; 487 PS).[2] Races were also extended to 40 minutes in duration,[2] and implemented the 25–18–15–12–10–8–6–4–2–1 point-scoring system as was introduced to the 2010 Formula One World Championship.[3][4]
Drivers
The number of drivers admitted to the series had been expected to increase to 30.[2] However, this was altered back to 24,[5] with only 22 drivers appearing on the Silverstone entry list.[6]
A nine-round calendar was published on 21 October 2009.[42] The series ventured outside of Europe, racing in Marrakech, after being an all-European series in 2009.
^"Gladdis buoyed by Snetterton pace". FIA Formula Two Championship. MotorSport Vision. 2010-04-09. Archived from the original on 2010-04-15. Retrieved 2010-04-15. Gladdis is making final arrangements in order to contest the entire 2010 season, but he is confident of making a strong start to the year at Silverstone, and admits he already has a very good feeling of the new Williams JPH1B F2 car.
