Vitaly Petrov

Russian race car driver, born on September 08, 1984 in Vyborg. Known under the nickname "Vyborg Rocket".
He started his career with the Lada Cup in 2001, when he was already 17 years old. He played in this series until 2002, dominating it, winning all stages, gaining the maximum number of points. In 2003, Vitaly moved to the Italian Formula Renault, played for the Euronova Racing team. In 2004 Vitaly took part in the first season of the new Russian championship Lada Revolution. He started from pole position in all races and finished only second. After that, he returned to Euro Formula 3000.
In 2005 he returned to Russia and won the Lada Revolution championships with ten victories and Formula 1600 with four. In 2006, Vitaly Petrov took part in international competitions for the first time - in the GP2 series. In this series, he won four wins.
Petrov became the first "combat" Russian driver participating in Formula 1 - his debut took place in March at the Bahrain Grand Prix 2010 as part of the Renault team.
In total, in the first three races, Petrov covered less than a third of the distance. At the same time, he was remembered for excellent starts, during which in each race he won back from two to six positions, as well as aggressive and effective attacks on opponents.
At the end of the 2011 Formula 1 season, Vitaly took part in the traditional Race of Champions. In the Nations Cup standings, he played for the national team of the Slavic countries and won one victory (over Michael Schumacher) in three races. The national team did not leave the group. In the individual competition, he lost all three races.
On December 9, 2011, the Lotus Renault team refused the services of Vitaly Petrov. On February 17, it was announced that Vitaly Petrov became a combat pilot of the Caterham F1 Team. His best result was 11th place in Brazil, which was the best result of all "rookie teams" since their appearance in Formula 1 in 3 years.
On February 1, 2013, Caterham announced that it had signed a contract with Dutchman Guido van den Garde, thereby leaving Vitaly without a seat in the car for the season.