Ten Drivers who Overachieved in 2019

I know. It's not Saturday. I'm as surprised as you are. The second part of this, Ten Drivers who Underachieved in 2019, is coming then. Anyway, today I'm focusing on ten people who had an excellent 2019 across different categories.

F1: Lando Norris

As well as becoming F1's Meme Lord, Lando had an excellent year on track. He ended up 11th in the F1 standings but he also did it in his rookie year, outpointing Kimi Raikkonen, Nico Hulkenburg and podium finisher at Germany, Daniil Kvyat, as well as finishing five points off Daniel Ricciardo. His goal for 2020 will be to get to the top 10 and challenge Carlos Sainz, which he could have done this year had it not been for a fistful of bad luck such as being crashed into in Bahrain and suffering an engine failure on the last lap at Belgium.

Supercars: Andre Heimgartner

Not because he finished 16th in the championship. He would be around 12th or 13th had he not suffered horrid luck at Bathurst and Gold Coast by finding a wall (either by himself or with help) in the final laps. It was his performances, both jagging a podium at Philip Island and going under 2:04 at Bathurst with the horridly underparitied Nissan, that stole the Scott McLaughlin show. Andre will most likely be challenging for wins in 2020 with the Ford Mustang and as a fan of his, I'm looking forward to it.

MotoGP: Fabio Quartararo

I'm not a MotoGP fan but this kid has shown why he was tipped for big things at the age of 15 in 2014. He finished sixth in his rookie season, finishing within touching distance of Maverick Vinales and beating Valentino Rossi, who are not only two MotoGP legends but also the factory Yamaha riders. He could potentially be a champion within two years.

WEC (2018-19): The Toyota #8

I know they wee expected to win or be second to the other Toyota in the championship. But the difference here is that they won 5-2. it's rare to find a top team that has two top quality drivers that are so biased one way. It was a brilliant performance by Alonso, Buemi and Nakajima to destroy the 7 and win both Le Mans and the WEC SuperSeason.

Formula E (2018-19): Mitch Evans

I could go with the obvious answer, Oliver Rowland the highest placed rookie. However, I'll go with my favourite driver Mitch Evans who turned everything around for Jaguar who had a bad start to the season, particularily with Nelson Piquet's disaster. He won his (and Jag's) first race in Rome and finished 5th in the championship, scoring 105 points which was ten times his teammates' (Alex Lynn and Nelson Piquet) combined score of 11.

NASCAR: Dan Suarez

Having been mostly billed as a novelty in 2018- the first Mexican to race in NASCAR- Suarez proved he deserved to be there today. Indeed had he finished at Daytona he would have made the Chase for the Championship. But the most impressive feat of his season was finishing a place above NASCAR legend Jimmie Johnson.

IndyCar: Colton Herta

Maybe except Quatartaro, this was the most obvious selection for the list. Herta absolutely slayed IndyCar in 2019. He finished seventh, in a tiny privateer team, and he even only fell short of one Andretti car (Alex Rossi). He also won at COTA and Monterrey. Andretti have signed him for 2020 and watch him for the future.

DTM: Jonathan Aberdein

Most of the DTM was very regular to what was expected, but Aberdein did pretty well overall for his first season in DTM and is likely moving up in the Audi world in 2020, as while he was cut out of WRT for 2020 by Fabio Scherer, he is being liked with Rene Rast's Team Rosberg seat. He didn't get on the podium but finished fourth at Assen and the Nurburging.

WTCR: Johan Kristofferson AND Mikel Azcona

Both of these two were equally as impressive in their debut season. Johan finished 5th and Mikel 6th after graduating from the Scandinavian Touring Car Cup and TCR Europe respectively. Could these two be the next Norbi or Guerreri? They outpointed a mixture of both rising stars and touring car legends over the course of the season: Nestor Girolami, Gabriele Tarquini, Yann Ehrlacher, JK Vernay, Rob Huff, Nick Catsburg, both KCMG Hondas and Augusto Farfus.

BTCC: Rory Butcher

Butcher improved massively on his 2017 and 2018 results- and with the unfortunate situation with Sam Tordoff, he needed to for Cobra Sport's sake. He inherited a win at Brands Hatch, won again at Snetterton and then also at Knockhill. Butcher could potentially challenge for the title next year.

That's it for this article. Comment below with who you agreed with, disagreed with and would have added instaead, and make sure to return for the Top 10 Underperforming Drivers of 2019!