Born and raised in Vyborg, Petrov began his career in rallying, skipping competitive kart racing altogether.

Widely known as the "Vyborg Rocket" in Russia,[a] Petrov scored his only podium finish at the 2011 Australian Grand Prix.

[citation needed] Afterwards he began competing in the Russian Lada Cup in 2001 and gained Oksana Kosachenko as his manager in 2001.

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

Petrov finished in third position with one win at Sepang International Circuit[8] in the 2008 GP2 Asia Series season for Campos, behind champion Romain Grosjean and Sébastien Buemi.

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[11] and Valencia Street Circuit.

[2][22] 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.

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 only Formula One podium, finishing in third place behind race-winner Sebastian Vettel and Lewis Hamilton.

During qualifying for the Chinese Grand Prix, Petrov's car suffered a technical problem after he had posted the fourth fastest time of Q2.

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

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.

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.

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.

[30] Petrov apologised for the outburst with an email to all Renault staff, with Éric Bouiller claiming the matter was closed.

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

[32] 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.

[33] Petrov qualified 20th for the Australian Grand Prix, and was running 15th when a steering problem forced him to retire on lap 36.

[41] After initially being outpaced by Kovalainen, once Petrov had adjusted to the car he began to turn the tables on his Finnish teammate.

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.

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.