Vitaly Petrov

He scored five-point-scoring positions from 21 races and took his first victory at Valencia on his way to finishing 13th in the standings.

He competed in several Le Mans Series races throughout the year, including the 24 Hours of Le Mans in a Courage Compétition LMP2 car.

Vitaly Aleksandrovich Petrov (Вита́лий Алекса́ндрович Петро́в; 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".

He was the first Russian to compete in the Formula One World Championship.

Unlike most top drivers, Petrov did not begin his career in karting, as there was very little motorsport where he lived.

He began competing in motorsport in 1998, when he took part in rally sprints and ice races.

Afterwards he began competing in the Russian Lada Cup in 2001 and gained as his manager in 2001.

He remained in the series for 2002 dominating the championship, winning each round to amass the maximum points total of 500.

In 2003, Petrov began racing in the Formula Renault championships.

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.

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.

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.

In 2007 he moved to Campos Grand Prix, where he joined Giorgio Pantano.

Petrov finished in third position with one win at Sepang International Circuit 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.

He finished fifth, with a win in the Sepang sprint race, 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 and Valencia Street Circuit.

Petrov was linked to joining Sauber, Renault F1 and Campos for the season.

He was announced as a Renault driver on 31 January and thus became the first Russian driver in the Formula One World Championship.

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.

Previously, on 1 March 2010, Carlos Ghosn met with Putin to announce that Renault F1 would have Petrov as its driver after Petrov's manager,, had sent a letter to Putin asking Putin for assistance.

Alexander Petrov, Vitaly's father, admitted that his best friend "Antiquary" or Ilya Traber, who is the leader of the Vyborg Russian Mafia and is a close friend of Putin, is a major sponsor of the Renault F1 team and its driver Vitaly Petrov, too.

Petrov stated that his goal is to start scoring points by mid-season.

His teammate for his debut season with the new Renault R30 car was Robert Kubica.

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.

Some of his dad's friends included Vladimir Putin who drove the Renault F1 car and on 4 January 2011 revealed that Sergei Chemezov of Rostec and Leonid Mikhelson of Novatek would provide financial assistance to the Renault F1 team and its driver Petrov.

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, 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.

He also made his debut in Euro Formula 3000 at Cagliari.

The car completed 198 laps before retiring from the race, being classified in 38th.