Vitaly
Petrov

Vitaly Petrov was born on 8 September 1984 in Vyborg, Russia. With almost no motorsport where he lived, he skipped karting and began in 1998 with rally sprints and ice races. He raced in the Russian Lada Cup in 2001 and 2002, winning every round in 2002, and took the Russian Lada Revolution championship in 2005.

In 2006 he finished third in Euroseries 3000 with four wins, and in the same season made his GP2 debut with David Price Racing. He moved to Campos for 2007 and took his first GP2 victory at Valencia. In 2009 he was runner-up to Nico Hülkenberg with Barwa Addax, winning at Istanbul Park and Valencia.

Petrov joined Renault in 2010, becoming the first Russian driver in the Formula One World Championship, and made his debut at the Bahrain Grand Prix. He finished seventh in China for his first points and fifth in Hungary. In the season finale in Abu Dhabi he kept Fernando Alonso and Mark Webber behind him, and Sebastian Vettel took the title. Petrov ended the year 13th in the standings. In 2011 he drove for Lotus Renault GP and finished third in the opening race in Australia after qualifying sixth, his only podium in Formula One. Tenth in the championship was his best final position. For 2012 the team signed Romain Grosjean, leaving Petrov without a seat for the time being.

In 2012 he drove for Caterham alongside Heikki Kovalainen. His best result was eleventh in the final race in Brazil, which moved Caterham ahead of Marussia into tenth in the constructors' standings. He finished 19th in the drivers' championship. Caterham did not retain him for 2013. He spent a year in the DTM with Mercedes, scoring no points and finishing last in the standings. In total he started 57 Formula One races.

Source: Wikipedia, “Vitaly Petrov”. Text licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.