Vitaly Petrov

Vitaly Petrov
Petrov at the 2011 Goodwood Festival of Speed
Nationality	Russian
Born	Vitaly Aleksandrovich Petrov (1984-09-08) 8 September 1984 Vyborg, Soviet Union
DTM career
Debut season	2014
Current team	Mücke Motorsport
Car no.	20
Starts	10
Championships	0
Wins	0
Poles	0
Fastest laps	0
Best finish	23rd in 2014
Finished last season	23rd (0 pts) 2014
Formula One World Championship career
Active years	2010–2012
Teams	Renault, Caterham
Entries	58 (57 starts)
Championships	0
Wins	0
Podiums	1
Career points	64
Pole positions	0
Fastest laps	1
First entry	2010 Bahrain Grand Prix
Last entry	2012 Brazilian Grand Prix

Vitaly Aleksandrovich Petrov (Russian: Вита́лий Алекса́ндрович Петро́в; IPA: [vʲɪˈtalʲɪ ɐlʲɪkˈsandrəvʲɪtɕ pʲɪˈtrof], born 8 September 1984) is a Russian racing driver who drove in Formula One for Renault F1 Team in 2010, Lotus Renault GP in 2011 and Caterham F1 Team in 2012. Born in Vyborg, he is known as the "Vyborg Rocket" (Russian: Вы́боргская Раке́та; IPA: [ˈvibɔrɡskɐjɐ rɐˈkʲetɐ]) in Russia.^[1] He was the first Russian to compete in the Formula One World Championship.

Early career

Unlike most top drivers, Petrov did not begin his career in karting, as there was very little motorsport where he lived.^[2] He began competing in motorsport in 1998, when he took part in rally sprints and ice races.^[3] Afterwards he began competing in the Russian Lada Cup in 2001. He remained in the series for 2002 dominating the championship, winning each round to amass the maximum points total of 500.^[4]

In 2003, Petrov began racing in the Formula Renault championships. His main campaign was in the Italian Formula Renault Championship for Euronova Racing, finishing 19th overall. During the year he competed in several rounds of the Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0,^[4] the Formula Renault 2.0 UK series, and finished fourth in the British Formula Renault Winter Series at the end of the year, taking one win.^[4] He also made his debut in Euro Formula 3000 at Cagliari.^[4]

In 2004, Petrov turned his attention to the inaugural season of the Russian Lada Revolution championship. He started every race from pole position, but finished as runner-up. He also made selected appearances in Formula Renault and Euro F3000. Petrov remained in Russia for 2005, winning the Lada Revolution Championship with ten wins and the Russian Formula 1600 series with five wins.^[4]

European series

In 2006, Petrov raced in Euroseries 3000 with Euronova Racing. He finished third in the standings, scoring nine podiums in eighteen races including four wins at Hungaroring, Mugello Circuit, Silverstone Circuit and Circuit de Catalunya.^[5] Also he participated in the Brno round of the 2006 F3000 International Masters season, where he took a pole position. During the 2006 season Petrov made his debut in the GP2 Series for David Price Racing. He replaced French driver Olivier Pla, who lost his sponsorship from Direxiv in the team from the German round onwards.^[6]

In 2007 he moved to Campos Grand Prix, where he joined Giorgio Pantano.^[7] He scored five point-scoring positions from 21 races and took his first victory at Valencia^[8] on his way to finishing 13th in the standings.^[4] He competed in several Le Mans Series races throughout the year, including the 24 Hours of Le Mans in a Courage Compétition LMP-2 car.^[4] The car completed 198 laps before retiring from the race, being classified in 38th.

Petrov finished in third position with one win at Sepang International Circuit^[9] in the 2008 GP2 Asia Series season for Campos, behind champion Romain Grosjean and Sébastien Buemi. In the main series Petrov remained with the Campos team. He finished seventh in final standings, taking a win at the Valencia Street Circuit.^[10] He finished fifth, with a win in the Sepang sprint race,^[11] in the 2008–09 GP2 Asia Series season for Campos.

He stayed with the team for 2009, now rebranded as Barwa Addax, and finished as runner-up to the dominant Nico Hülkenberg in the championship, winning twice at Istanbul Park^[12] and Valencia Street Circuit.^[13]

Formula One

Renault (2010–2011)

2010

Petrov was linked to joining Sauber, Renault F1 and Campos for the 2010 season. He was announced as a Renault driver on 31 January and thus he has become the first Russian driver in the Formula One World Championship (Igor Troubetzkoy raced a Ferrari Formula One car in 1948). He was signed for a one-year deal, with an option for a further two. He was very close to signing for Campos but he felt Renault was the best option for him. He also mentioned that he had no major sponsors from Russia backing him just his dad and some of his friends.^[2] Petrov stated that his goal is to start scoring points by mid-season. His teammate for his debut season was Robert Kubica, who like Petrov – who stands at 185 cm (6 ft 0.8 in) tall – is one of the tallest drivers on the grid.^[14] After qualifying seventeenth, Petrov's first race ended prematurely when the team found his right-front suspension strut to be damaged, which the Russian suspected to have been caused by hitting a kerb too hard. He had been chasing Rubens Barrichello for tenth place and a World Championship point at the time of the incident.

He finished his first race at the Chinese Grand Prix, and in doing so, scored his first F1 points, as he finished in seventh position. This race was also noted for his overtakes of Michael Schumacher and Mark Webber under heavy rain.^[15] After qualifying for the Turkish Grand Prix he started ninth. But after a collision with Fernando Alonso in the closing laps, he suffered a puncture and was forced to make a pitstop. On returning to the track he set the fastest lap of the race, finishing fifteenth.

In Hungary, Petrov qualified seventh, ahead of much respected teammate Robert Kubica. He finished in 5th place, his highest finish to date, while in Belgium, Petrov started in 23rd place, after failing to set a time in qualifying because of a first-session crash. He made up 14 places in changeable conditions to finish 9th, resulting in his third consecutive points finish. Petrov retired on the first lap of the Japanese Grand Prix after colliding with Nico Hülkenberg, and crashed out of seventh place in the Korean Grand Prix. He qualified tenth for the final round of the season in Abu Dhabi, ahead of Kubica who qualified eleventh. In the race, Petrov pitted under an early safety car period which moved him up the order when drivers ahead of him pitted. Fernando Alonso and Mark Webber both came out behind him and Petrov remained ahead of them until the end of the race, which stopped the title contenders' progress and enabled Sebastian Vettel to win the title.^[16]

2011

After the 2010 season ended Renault team boss Éric Boullier said that there was a good chance of Petrov remaining with the team in 2011.^[17] On 22 December 2010, he was retained by the team on a two-year deal.^[18] During the close season, the team were rebranded 'Lotus Renault GP' following a sponsorship deal with Lotus Cars. Teammate Robert Kubica suffered serious injuries in a rallying accident, with Petrov being joined by Nick Heidfeld for the start of the season.

In the first race of the season in Australia, Petrov qualified sixth – a career-best – and secured his first Formula One podium, finishing in third place behind race-winner Sebastian Vettel and Lewis Hamilton.^[19] In Malaysia, Petrov again ran in the points until he ran wide at a corner and left the circuit; attempting to rejoin, he hit a bump caused by a drainage gully which launched his car into the air and broke the steering column on landing. During qualifying for the Chinese Grand Prix, Petrov's car suffered a technical problem after he had posted the fourth fastest time of Q2. As a result, he could not compete in Q3, leaving him to start tenth on the grid. He drove a consistent race and made good strategy calls and made his way to ninth after passing several cars after his last stop of a two stop strategy on Lap 37.^[20] An eighth place in Turkey added to his points tally before an eleventh-place finish in Spain.

In Monaco, Petrov was taken to hospital after a crash, from sixth place, involving Adrian Sutil, Lewis Hamilton and Jaime Alguersuari. The crash halted the race for 20 minutes before it eventually restarted. He was released from hospital the same day,^[21] and returned to the cockpit with a fifth-place finish in Canada. Petrov had a difficult weekend in Valencia, where he finished 15th, having started from 11th on the grid. He finished 12th at the British Grand Prix, as new restrictions on blown diffusers were introduced. In Germany, Petrov returned to Q3 for the first time since Canada before finishing ninth. A non-points finish in Hungary was followed by a ninth at the Belgian Grand Prix. Petrov qualified seventh at Monza, but while battling with Nico Rosberg on the first lap, the HRT of Vitantonio Liuzzi crashed into the side of both of them, eliminating all three cars. Renault suffered their worst performance of the season in Singapore, where Petrov qualified in 18th and finished 17th, before a ninth-place finish in Japan.

At the Korean Grand Prix, Petrov qualified eighth but retired after crashing into the back of Michael Schumacher on lap 16, causing a safety car. It became the third contact between the pair in 2011, when Petrov appeared to be too involved in trying to outbrake Alonso on the long straight before Turn 3. He incurred a five-place grid penalty for the incident at the inaugural Indian Grand Prix, which meant that he had to start the race from sixteenth place. He finished the race eleventh, just in front of teammate Bruno Senna, and just missing out on the points-scoring positions. After finishing 13th in Abu Dhabi, Petrov launched an attack on his team in an interview on Russian television, citing lack of development, strategy mistakes, and criticisms of the drivers by team management.^[22] Petrov apologised for the outburst with an email to all Renault staff, with Éric Bouiller claiming the matter was closed.^[23] Petrov ended the season with a tenth-place finish in Brazil, but with Adrian Sutil finishing sixth in the race, Sutil moved ahead of Petrov for ninth place in the final championship standings.

In December 2011, it was announced that Romain Grosjean would partner Kimi Räikkönen at the team in 2012, leaving Petrov without a drive.^[24]

Caterham (2012)

2012

On 17 February it was announced that Petrov would drive for the Caterham F1 Team in 2012, replacing Italian Jarno Trulli and partnering Heikki Kovalainen.^[25] Petrov qualified 20th for the Australian Grand Prix, and was running 15th when a steering problem forced him to retire on lap 36.^[26] In Malaysia, Petrov drove a clean race to finish 16th, ahead of Kovalainen. It became apparent that the Caterham lacked the pace of midfield cars, but was evidently faster than Marussia and HRT.^[27]

Petrov had another clean race at the Chinese Grand Prix where he qualified in 20th, and made his way up through the race to finish 18th, again ahead of Kovalainen who lost two laps in the pits.^[28] At the Bahrain Grand Prix, Petrov managed to qualify well over a second faster than the closest Marussia, cementing the Caterham's position as the fastest of the new teams for the third year running; he managed to finish the race in 16th place, equalling his best result in Malaysia earlier in the year.^[29]

The Spanish Grand Prix was the first time Petrov had qualified ahead of his teammate by just under two tenths, however, he finished behind him for the first time in the season.^[30] The Monaco Grand Prix was a bad run for Petrov, after qualifying nearly nine tenths down from Kovalainen, he retired from the race on lap 15 with electrical failure, giving him his second retirement of the season.^[31]

At the Canadian Grand Prix, Petrov managed to qualify in 19th, ahead of the Toro Rosso of Jean-Éric Vergne, but was unable to keep ahead at the start and went on to finish exactly where he started, albeit, one lap behind the leaders.^[32] After starting the race on the tenth row of the grid, Petrov ran as high as tenth at the European Grand Prix – a result that would have earned Caterham their first Formula One point – but was involved in a collision with Daniel Ricciardo and finished thirteenth.^[33]

After inititially being outpaced by Kovalainen, once Petrov had adjusted to the car he began to turn the tables on his Finnish teammate. He finished ahead of Kovalainen in four of the last five races of the season.

In the final race of the season in Brazil, Petrov finished a season's best eleventh, making a crucial pass on Marussia's Charles Pic in the closing stages of the Grand Prix. The result meant Caterham moved back ahead of Marussia to claim 10th place in the Constructors' Championship, a position worth millions of pounds more in prize money.

2013

Petrov was not signed by any team. He was not retained by Caterham, as Charles Pic and Giedo van der Garde were signed to replace him and Heikki Kovalainen in the team.

DTM

2014

Petrov signed with Mercedes to drive in the German touring car series DTM. But after a scoreless season and finishing last in the Drivers' Championship, he left the sport after one year.^[34]

Racing record

Career summary

Season	Series	Team	Races	Wins	Poles	F/Laps	Podiums	Points	Position
2001	Lada Cup Russia	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	1st
2002	Lada Cup Russia	SK OOO Favorit	5	5	5	5	5	500	1st
	VW Polo Cup	?	1	1	?	?	1	?	?
	Formula RUS	10 Duimov	2	2	?	?	2	41	10th
2003	Formula Renault UK Winter Series	Eurotek Motorsport	?	1	0	0	1	44	4th
	Formula Renault UK		2	0	0	0	0	23	28th
	Formula Renault 2000 Italia	Euronova Junior Team	12	0	0	0	0	12	19th
	Formula Renault 2000 Masters	Euronova Racing	6	0	0	0	0	0	NC
	Euro Formula 3000		1	0	0	0	0	0	22nd
2004	Formula Renault 2000 Italia	Euronova Junior Team	4	0	0	0	0	2	28th
	Formula Renault 2000 Eurocup		4	0	0	0	0	0	NC
	Euro Formula 3000	Euronova Racing	1	0	0	0	0	0	NC
	Lada Revolution Russia	Elex Polyus	4	1	4	?	4	43	2nd
2005	Russian Formula 1600	ArtLine ProTeam	6	5	1	?	9	85	1st
	Lada Revolution Russia	Maxmotor-Ulianovsk	14	10	5	6	9	?	1st
2006	Euroseries 3000	Euronova Racing	17	4	0	2	9	72	3rd
	GP2 Series	DPR	8	0	0	0	0	0	28th
	F3000 International Masters	Charouz Racing System	2	0	1	0	0	0	29th
2007	GP2 Series	Campos Grand Prix	21	1	0	0	1	21	13th
2008	GP2 Series	Barwa International Campos Team	20	1	0	1	3	39	7th
	GP2 Asia Series		10	1	1	0	4	33	3rd
2008–09	GP2 Asia Series	Barwa International Campos Team	11	1	0	0	3	28	5th
2009	GP2 Series	Barwa Addax Team	20	2	2	1	7	75	2nd
2010	Formula One	Renault F1 Team	19	0	0	1	0	27	13th
2011	Formula One	Lotus Renault GP	19	0	0	0	1	37	10th
2012	Formula One	Caterham F1 Team	20	0	0	0	0	0	19th
2014	Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters	Mücke Motorsport	10	0	0	0	0	0	23rd
2016	World Endurance Championship - LMP2	SMP Racing	9	0	0	0	1	63	9th
	24 Hours of Le Mans - LMP2		1	0	0	0	1	N/A	3rd
	European Le Mans Series		2	0	0	0	1	23	15th
2017	World Endurance Championship - LMP2	CEFC Manor TRS Racing	4	0	0	0	0	16	17th*
	24 Hours of Le Mans - LMP2		1	0	0	0	0	N/A	DNF

^* Season still in progress.

Complete GP2 Series results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Entrant	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	DC	Points
2006	DPR Direxiv	VAL FEA	VAL SPR	IMO FEA	IMO SPR	NÜR FEA	NÜR SPR	CAT FEA	CAT SPR	MON FEA	SIL FEA	SIL SPR	MAG FEA	MAG SPR	HOC FEA 15	HOC SPR 15	HUN FEA 15	HUN SPR 10	IST FEA 16	IST SPR 18	MNZ FEA Ret	MNZ SPR 12	28th	0
2007	Campos Grand Prix	BHR FEA 14	BHR SPR 11	CAT FEA 10	CAT SPR 16	MON FEA 6	MAG FEA 5	MAG SPR 5	SIL FEA 9	SIL SPR 9	NÜR FEA 11	NÜR SPR 17	HUN FEA Ret	HUN SPR 9	IST FEA 17	IST SPR 5	MNZ FEA 12	MNZ SPR 12	SPA FEA 9	SPA SPR 11	VAL FEA 1	VAL SPR 8	13th	21
2008	Campos Grand Prix	CAT FEA 6	CAT SPR Ret	IST FEA 5	IST SPR 2	MON FEA Ret	MON SPR 15	MAG FEA 4	MAG SPR 18	SIL FEA 10	SIL SPR 5	HOC FEA Ret	HOC SPR 12	HUN FEA Ret	HUN SPR 9	VAL FEA 1	VAL SPR 15	SPA FEA 4	SPA SPR 3	MNZ FEA Ret	MNZ SPR Ret		7th	39
2009	Barwa Addax	CAT FEA 2	CAT SPR 9	MON FEA 2	MON SPR 6	IST FEA 1	IST SPR 3	SIL FEA 15	SIL SPR 10	NÜR FEA 4	NÜR SPR 4	HUN FEA Ret	HUN SPR 12	VAL FEA 1	VAL SPR 3	SPA FEA Ret	SPA SPR 6	MNZ FEA 2	MNZ SPR 5	ALG FEA 4	ALG SPR Ret		2nd	75

Complete GP2 Asia Series results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Entrant	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	DC	Points
2008	Campos Grand Prix	DUB1 FEA Ret	DUB1 SPR 9	SEN FEA 5	SEN SPR 3	SEP FEA 1	SEP SPR 3	BHR FEA 10	BHR SPR 3	DUB2 FEA 4	DUB2 SPR Ret			3rd	33
2008–09	Campos Grand Prix	SHI FEA 5	SHI SPR Ret	DUB FEA 5	DUB SPR C	BHR1 FEA 10	BHR1 SPR 12	LSL FEA 3	LSL SPR 2	SEP FEA 6	SEP SPR 1	BHR2 FEA 19	BHR2 SPR 11	5th	28

24 Hours of Le Mans results

Year	Team	Co-Drivers	Car	Class	Laps	Pos.	Class Pos.
2007	Noël del Bello Racing	Romain Ianetta Liz Halliday	Courage LC75-AER	LMP2	198	DNF	DNF
2016	SMP Racing	Kirill Ladygin Viktor Shaitar	BR Engineering BR01-Nissan	LMP2	353	7th	3rd
2017	CEFC Manor TRS Racing	Roberto Gonzáles Simon Trummer	Oreca 07-Gibson	LMP2	152	DNF	DNF

Complete Formula One results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Entrant	Chassis	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	WDC	Points
2010	Renault F1 Team	Renault R30	Renault RS27-2010 2.4 V8	BHR Ret	AUS Ret	MAL Ret	CHN 7	ESP 11	MON 13†	TUR 15	CAN 17	EUR 14	GBR 13	GER 10	HUN 5	BEL 9	ITA 13	SIN 11	JPN Ret	KOR Ret	BRA 16	ABU 6		13th	27
2011	Lotus Renault GP	Renault R31	Renault RS27-2011 2.4 V8	AUS 3	MAL 17†	CHN 9	TUR 8	ESP 11	MON Ret	CAN 5	EUR 15	GBR 12	GER 10	HUN 12	BEL 9	ITA Ret	SIN 17	JPN 9	KOR Ret	IND 11	ABU 13	BRA 10		10th	37
2012	Caterham F1 Team	Caterham CT01	Renault RS27-2012 2.4 V8	AUS Ret	MAL 16	CHN 18	BHR 16	ESP 17	MON Ret	CAN 19	EUR 13	GBR DNS	GER 16	HUN 19	BEL 14	ITA 15	SIN 19	JPN 17	KOR 16	IND 17	ABU 16	USA 17	BRA 11	19th	0

^† Did not finish, but was classified as he had completed more than 90% of the race distance.

Complete Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Team	Car	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Pos.	Pts
2014	Mücke Motorsport	DTM AMG Mercedes C-Coupé	HOC 17	OSC 17	HUN 17	NOR 19	MSC 18	SPL 20	NÜR 18	LAU 12	ZAN 11	HOC 18†	23rd	0

^† Driver did not finish, but was classified as he had completed 75% of the race distance.

Complete FIA World Endurance Championship results

Year	Entrant	Class	Car	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	Rank	Points
2016	SMP Racing	LMP2	BR Engineering BR01	Nissan VK45DE 4.5 L V8	SIL 8	SPA 9	LMS 3	NÜR 6	MEX Ret	COA 6	FUJ 10	SHA 7	BHR 8	9th	63
2017	CEFC Manor TRS Racing	LMP2	Oreca 07	Gibson GK428 4.2 L V8	SIL 7	SPA 8	LMS Ret	NÜR 7	MEX	COA	FUJ	SHA	BHR	17th*	16*

^* Season still in progress.

Complete European Le Mans Series results

Year	Entrant	Class	Chassis	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	Rank	Points
2016	SMP Racing	LMP2	BR Engineering BR01	Nissan VK45DE 4.5 L V8	SIL	IMO	RBR	LEC	SPA 6	EST 3	15th	23

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Vitaly Petrov.

• Official website
• Vitaly Petrov career summary at DriverDB.com