Top 10 Moments from 2014 F1 Season

In the years to come, the history books will suggest that the 2014 Formula One season was one to forget.

The runaway constructors' champions, Mercedes, won all but three of the 19 races, with Lewis Hamilton claiming 11 grand prix victories as he took his second drivers' world title.

Yet those figures are misleading, hiding the true tale behind F1's season of change.

The fight at the front was far from straightforward, with plenty of twists and turns occurring between Hamilton and Nico Rosberg—long-term friends, Silver Arrows colleagues and title rivals.

Further back, an overhaul of the regulations allowed rising stars to take centre stage, with the familiar faces of recent seasons reduced to bit-part roles. And those who believed their best days were firmly behind them found their careers revitalised.

Underdogs, too, had their days in the sun—but their achievements paled into insignificance when tragedy struck.

2014 evoked the full spectrum of emotions—from excitement to surprise, from joy to sadness—and to commemorate the rollercoaster campaign, here are the top 10 moments of the year, with our choices based on their significance, drama and, in some cases, both.

Honourable Mentions

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Daniel Ricciardo's disqualification from the Australian Grand Prix, only hours after he celebrated his maiden podium finish, created controversy at the very start of the year and set the tone for a season of highs and lows throughout the paddock.

Those highs included the late battle between Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg, the two title protagonists, in Spain, their team instructions row in Hungary and Ricciardo's debut win in the dramatic Canadian Grand Prix.

Kimi Raikkonen experienced his fair share of lows, with the Ferrari driver's huge crash on the first lap of the British Grand Prix—which saw his car spin across the track into the path of other cars—his most notable contribution to the campaign.

Raikkonen's former team-mate, Felipe Massa, experienced worrying shunts of his own as his Williams rolled at the start of the German Grand Prix, just over a month after the Brazilian tangled with Sergio Perez in Canada.

The final stages of the season were marred by the absence of Caterham and Marussia, whose appearances were restricted as the true extent of F1's faulty business model became clear.

10. Felipe Massa and Williams Steal Pole Position in Austria

The Austrian Grand Prix was the only event which saw Mercedes miss out on pole position, leaving Williams and Felipe Massa to roll back the years.

It was the team's first pole since the 2005 European Grand Prix—Pastor Maldonado led the cars away in the 2012 Spanish GP only after pole-sitter Lewis Hamilton was disqualified from qualifying—and Massa's first since the 2008 Brazilian Grand Prix, the scene of his last win.

Despite locking out the front row for the first time since Germany 2003, as per Formula1.com, Williams were soundly beaten by the Silver Arrows the following day as Massa and team-mate Valtteri Bottas slipped to fourth and third respectively.

9. Jules Bianchi Scores for Marussia in Monaco

Since arriving in Formula One under the guise of Virgin Racing in 2010, Marussia had earned plenty of respect from their peers but never any points.

That miserable run of 82 races finally ended in the Monaco Grand Prix when Jules Bianchi, the team's lead driver, crossed the finish line in eighth place after a battling performance.

Eighth soon became ninth when a post-race penalty was applied to Bianchi for serving an earlier punishment under safety car conditions, but it didn't spoil Marussia's party.

The popular minnows left Monaco with two points to their name and ninth place in the constructors' standings, a position they held on to for the remainder of the campaign.

8. Daniel Ricciardo's Late Charge in Hungary

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After taking his maiden grand prix win in Canada, Daniel Ricciardo cemented his status as one of the elite drivers on the grid with victory in Hungary.

The Australian, with four laps remaining, sat in third behind Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso—arguably the two most accomplished racers in the sport—but with fresher tyres fitted to his Red Bull.

Despite being faced with a daunting task, Ricciardo plucked them off with two brave moves, passing the Mercedes driver around the outside of Turn 2—a move that Nico Rosberg, the world championship leader at the time, failed to complete on the final lap.

Just 13 corners later, he was in the lead having passed the Ferrari at Turn 1.

Ricciardo was impressively calm—almost Alonso-esque—in his management of the situation, sensing victory and seizing it with both hands.

7. Sebastian Vettel Fails to Contain Daniel Ricciardo in China

Thirteen months after the infamous Multi-21 incident between Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber, there was another inter-team conflict at Red Bull in the Chinese Grand Prix.

Vettel, who ignored team instructions to pass Webber for the win of the 2013 Malaysian Grand Prix, was the perpetrator once again in China, refusing to let Daniel Ricciardo, his new team-mate, overtake without a fight.

His unsympathetic response when asked to move aside for the Australian on Lap 24 risked creating another taxing team orders row, but Ricciardo—rather than complaining about being held up by his own colleague—simply breezed past the four-time world champion less than two laps later.

With Ricciardo having the edge over the German in the early stages of the campaign, this was the first time that you sensed the momentum shifting within Red Bull—and Vettel, the team's darling for so long, was unable to do anything about it.

6. 'Shock Saturday' at Suzuka

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Nico Rosberg took pole position for the Japanese Grand Prix, but who cared about that?

The main story at Suzuka on October 4 concerned Fernando Alonso and Sebastian Vettel, whose surprise departure from Red Bull at the end of 2014 was confirmed by the team that morning.

Christian Horner, the four-time world champions' team principal, ended any speculation over Vettel's plans by informing Sky Sports that the German was on his way to Ferrari, which left Alonso in a precarious position.

Although, according to Sky Sports' James Galloway, Alonso had terminated his contract with the Italian team two days prior to Vettel's bombshell, the Spaniard was yet to decide his own destination for 2015—and found one door instantly slammed in his face as Red Bull promoted Daniil Kvyat to replace Vettel.

The uncertainty over Alonso's future led to playful taunts from Felipe Massa, his former team-mate, who advised the two-time champion to join a minnow team.

It was one of the few occasions this season that the off-track goings on were more exciting than the on-track action.

5. Jules Bianchi's Crash in Japan

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Jules Bianchi's crash in the latter stages of the Japanese Grand Prix cast a shadow over the 2014 campaign.

The 24-year-old suffered a severe head injury when he aquaplaned off the circuit in the latter stages of the race at Suzuka, striking a recovery vehicle that was in the process of removing another car.

In tribute to their injured star, Marussia decided to run only one car at the Russian Grand Prix a week later, but built Bianchi's car and left it sitting in the garage, waiting for its driver to return.

The Sochi event proved to be their last appearance of the season as financial concerns mounted.

At the time of writing, Bianchi, as per BBC Sport, remains in a critical condition but is no longer in an artificial coma having been transferred from Japan to his home city of Nice, France.

4. Fernando Alonso and Sebastian Vettel Scrap at Silverstone

Sebastian Vettel and Fernando Alonso have dominated Formula One in recent years, with the Spaniard finishing second in the championship to the German on three occasions since 2010.

The multiple world champions were only occasional challengers this year, however, recording just six podium finishes between them.

Despite their fall from the front, 2014 witnessed the closest ever on-track battle between the pair at the British Grand Prix.

Alonso and Vettel raced in close proximity for 14 consecutive laps, which included two contenders for "Overtake of the Year" at Silverstone's high-speed Copse corner, before the Red Bull driver made the decisive pass.

Although it was for a distant fifth-place finish, the battle between Vettel and Alonso highlighted the skill, class and respect between F1's premier competitors.

3. Nico Rosberg Secures Controversial Monaco Pole

So did he mean it or not?

The beauty of Nico Rosberg's mysterious off-track excursion in Monaco is that nobody, apart from the man himself, will ever know for definite.

Rosberg running wide at the Mirabeau corner on his final qualifying run led to the appearance of yellow flags, which prevented those behind—including Lewis Hamilton, who was on course for pole position—from challenging the German's pace-setting time.

The FIA stewards decided that no wrongdoing had taken place and Rosberg converted pole into his first win since the season opener, breaking Hamilton's rhythm as well as his run of four straight victories.

Rosberg's mistake raised tensions within Mercedes and gave the German the upper hand at the mid-point of the season as a mixture of mistakes and bad luck plagued Hamilton for five consecutive events.

2. Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg Collide at Spa

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The tangle between Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg in the Belgian Grand Prix was the moment when the latter's title challenge began to unravel.

After popping out of his team-mate's tow as they hurled down the Kemmel Straight, Rosberg attempted a pass around the outside of Hamilton, the race leader, at the Les Combes turn.

The German, however, misjudged it badly, losing part of his front wing and leaving the No. 44 car with a flat rear tyre, eliminating Hamilton from contention.

Although Rosberg recovered to finish a close second behind Daniel Ricciardo, the damage had been done.

He was booed during the podium ceremony before being punished by the team, and Hamilton later embarked upon a career-best streak of five consecutive race wins to take the high ground in the title race.

1. The Duel in the Desert

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Formula One was taking a long hard look in the mirror as it headed to Bahrain for the third race of the season.

The sound of the new-spec power units had attracted widespread criticism, with the dominant wins for Mercedes in Australia and Malaysia failing to help matters.

Fears of yet another boring, one-sided campaign, however, were well and truly extinguished in the desert, where Hamilton and Rosberg fought for victory for the length of the grand prix.

Rosberg, after losing the lead at the start, harried his team-mate throughout—occasionally nudging ahead in Turns 1 and 4—but could never make a move stick as Hamilton defended robustly.

At such an early stage of the year, there was no ego, no tension and no real-time points calculations—just two racers racing hard and fair.

The joyous expression of both Hamilton and Rosberg in parc ferme and on the podium, as they reflected on the race of their lives, said it all: This was F1 at its very best.