Formula One: First Russian Racer In A Formula One Season, Vitaly Petrov
Being part of the 2010 Formula One caravan, Petrov has become the first Russian driver ever taking part in the Formula One World Championship. Vitaly Aleksandrovich Petrov, born in the beautiful town of Vyborg, Russia is also called "Vyborg Rocket" by his home town fans.
Petrov was born on September 8, 1984 and started his racing career with Russian Lada Cup in 2001, at the age of seventeen. As he comes from a place where motor racing is neither very popular nor very common, therefore unlike most of the top drivers, his love for racing did not nurture from Karting.
Till the year 2002, he remained with the same series, he was able to win all the rounds collecting the maximum possible points of 500, and thus was crowned the victory of the season.
Later in the year 2003, he flew out of Russia and competed in various European-based Formula Renault series of which 2.0 UK winter championships brought him the best results by having finished at fourth place overall.
In the year 2004, he drove for Formula Renault 2000 Italia and Eurocup, along with F3000 Euro series but was not able to have a lot of success there. Thus, he returned to Russia the following year to participate in Formula 1600 Russia championship and Lada Revolution Russia championship, where he bagged victory at both the series.
In the year 2006, he stood third overall in Euroseries 3000 and F3000 Italy series, while the most remarkable thing of the season was his move towards GP2. Here he was able to finish at thirteenth place overall and in the same year he took part in Formula Master and the Le Mans Series as well.
The year 2009 had been a great one for him, as he was successful to finish at the GP2 Series at second place with having bagged two wins and seven podiums. Moreover, he stood fifth overall in the 2009 season of GP2 Asia.
This year by making his way to the Formula One, for the Renault team, he had become the first Russian ever to take part in World Championship. His debut season had been satisfactory so far, without showing anything extraordinary, he had been able to make his place here.
The season started off shaky for the Russian, as he was not able to finish any of the first three races held in Bahrain, Australia and Malaysia. However, the fourth race of the season, the Chinese Grand Prix had been his best of the season so far with having finished the race at seventh place and being able to bag six points.
His stars did have not shine bright since after that race, as he had not been able to score any more than a single point. In Spain, he ended at eleventh place, while in Monaco he was hardly able to finish at thirteenth slot after having started the race at fourteenth place.
He was able to do well in qualifying for the Turkish Grand Prix, as he started the race from the ninth position on the grid but still returned pointless after finishing the final race day at fifteenth position.
Canadian Grand Prix was another disappointment for him, as he finished at seventeenth place followed by his fourteenth place finish in the European Grand Prix. The next race of the season was held at Silverstone, Britain where he ended the race at thirteenth spot.
The second race of the season, where he had been able to secure points was the German Grand Prix held at Hockenheim track last Sunday, where he finished tenth and was able to bag one point. At the moment, he stands at fourteenth position in the drivers’ Championship.
Well, with his finish among the top ten kin the last race, many analysts believe those good days are probably back for the racer and he might be able to bag a few more points in the last eight races of the season.
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