53 Facts About Vitaly Petrov

1.

Vitaly Aleksandrovich Petrov 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.

2.

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

3.

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

4.

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

5.

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

6.

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

7.

Vitaly Petrov made his debut in Euro Formula 3000 at Cagliari.

8.

In 2004, Vitaly Petrov turned his attention to the inaugural season of the Russian Lada Revolution championship.

9.

Vitaly Petrov started every race from pole position, but finished as runner-up.

10.

Vitaly Petrov made selected appearances in Formula Renault and Euro F3000.

11.

Vitaly Petrov remained in Russia for 2005, winning the Lada Revolution Championship with ten wins and the Russian Formula 1600 series with five wins.

12.

In 2006, Vitaly Petrov raced in Euroseries 3000 with Euronova Racing.

13.

Vitaly Petrov finished third in the standings, scoring nine podiums in eighteen races including four wins at Hungaroring, Mugello Circuit, Silverstone Circuit and Circuit de Catalunya.

14.

Vitaly Petrov replaced French driver Olivier Pla, who lost his sponsorship from Direxiv in the team from the German round onwards.

15.

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

16.

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

17.

Vitaly 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 Sebastien Buemi.

18.

Vitaly Petrov finished seventh in final standings, taking a win at the Valencia Street Circuit.

19.

Vitaly Petrov stayed with the team for 2009, now rebranded as Barwa Addax, and finished as runner-up to the dominant Nico Hulkenberg in the championship, winning twice at Istanbul Park and Valencia Street Circuit.

20.

Vitaly Petrov was linked to joining Sauber, Renault F1 and Campos for the 2010 season.

21.

Vitaly Petrov was signed for a one-year deal, with an option for a further two.

22.

Vitaly Petrov was very close to signing for Campos but he felt Renault was the best option for him.

23.

Vitaly Petrov mentioned that he had no major sponsors from Russia backing him just his dad and some of his friends.

24.

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

25.

Vitaly Petrov had been chasing Rubens Barrichello for tenth place and a World Championship point at the time of the incident.

26.

Vitaly Petrov finished his first race at the Chinese Grand Prix, and in doing so, scored his first F1 points, as he finished in seventh position.

27.

In Belgium, Vitaly Petrov started in 23rd place, after failing to set a time in qualifying because of a first-session crash.

28.

Vitaly Petrov made up 14 places in changeable conditions to finish 9th, resulting in his third consecutive points finish.

29.

Vitaly Petrov retired on the first lap of the Japanese Grand Prix after colliding with Nico Hulkenberg, and crashed out of seventh place in the Korean Grand Prix.

30.

Fernando Alonso and Mark Webber both came out behind him and Vitaly 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.

31.

Teammate Robert Kubica suffered serious injuries in a rallying accident, with Vitaly Petrov being joined by Nick Heidfeld for the start of the season.

32.

In Malaysia, Vitaly 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.

33.

Vitaly Petrov 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.

34.

In Monaco, Vitaly Petrov was taken to hospital after a crash, from sixth place, involving Adrian Sutil, Lewis Hamilton and Jaime Alguersuari.

35.

Vitaly Petrov was released from hospital the same day, and returned to the cockpit with a fifth-place finish in Canada.

36.

Vitaly Petrov had a difficult weekend in Valencia, where he finished 15th, having started from 11th on the grid.

37.

Vitaly Petrov finished 12th at the British Grand Prix, as new restrictions on blown diffusers were introduced.

38.

In Germany, Vitaly Petrov returned to Q3 for the first time since Canada before finishing ninth.

39.

Vitaly Petrov 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.

40.

Vitaly Petrov finished the race eleventh, just in front of teammate Bruno Senna, and just missing out on the points-scoring positions.

41.

Vitaly Petrov apologised for the outburst with an email to all Renault staff, with Eric Bouiller claiming the matter was closed.

42.

Vitaly Petrov ended the season with a tenth-place finish in Brazil, but with Adrian Sutil finishing sixth in the race, Sutil moved ahead of Vitaly Petrov for ninth place in the final championship standings.

43.

On 17 February it was announced that Vitaly Petrov would drive for the Caterham F1 Team in 2012, replacing Italian Jarno Trulli and partnering Heikki Kovalainen.

44.

In Malaysia, Vitaly Petrov drove a clean race to finish 16th, ahead of Kovalainen.

45.

Vitaly 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.

46.

At the Bahrain Grand Prix, Vitaly 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.

47.

The Spanish Grand Prix was the first time Vitaly Petrov had qualified ahead of his teammate by just under two-tenths he finished behind him for the first time in the season.

48.

At the Canadian Grand Prix, Vitaly Petrov managed to qualify in 19th, ahead of the Toro Rosso of Jean-Eric 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.

49.

Vitaly Petrov finished ahead of Kovalainen in four of the last five races of the season.

50.

Vitaly Petrov was not retained by Caterham as the team replaced both him and Kovalainen with Charles Pic and Giedo van der Garde for the 2013 season.

51.

Vitaly Petrov signed with Mercedes to drive in the German touring car series DTM.

52.

Vitaly Petrov voiced a character based on himself in the Russian release of the 2011 Pixar film Cars 2.

53.

Vitaly Petrov's brother Sergei is a music composer graduated from Vienna's Conservatory.