Sergey Andreyevich Afanasyev ( rus, Серге́й Андре́евич Афана́сьев, p=sʲɪrˈɡʲej ɐnˈdrʲe(j)ɪvʲɪtɕ ɐfɐˈnasʲjɪf; born 25 March 1988) is a Russian racing driver, holder of honour "Master of sports of Russia".

Education

School

Sergey graduated from school (Moscow) in 2004 with the gold medal.

Higher education

2009 – Academic Law University (Russian Academy of Science) // Law (Honours degree) 2010 –

Lomonosov Moscow State University Moscow State University (MSU), officially M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University,. is a public research university in Moscow, Russia. The university includes 15 research institutes, 43 faculties, more than 300 departments, and six branches. Al ...

// Marketing 2013 – Moscow Socio-Pedagogical Institute // Pedagogics and psychology

Career

Early career

Afanasyev began his racing career 1998 in baggy-kart where immediately started to achieve high results. Since 1999 started to take part in

go-kart A go-kart, also written as go-cart (often referred to as simply a kart), is a type of small sports car, close wheeled car, open-wheel car or quadracycle. Go-karts come in all shapes and forms, from non-motorised models to high-performanc ...

competition. 1999 – bronze in Russian Championship in Mini 2000 – Champion of Russia in Raket 2001 – bronze in Russian Championship in ICA-junior 2002 – Champion of Russia in ICA-junior 2002 – Champion of Russia in Oka-junior (winter track racing)

Formula RUS and Formula Renault 2000

Sergey began his racing career in openwheels in 2003 in the Formula RUS. That year saw him take three wins in this series. The next year he took championship title. He also took part in eight Formula Renault Monza races for BVM Minardi Junior Team, finishing the year in 13th place. The following year, Afanasyev took part in a full Formula Renault 2.0 season, driving with Lukoil Racing team. He finished tenth overall in that year. He also contested thirteen races of the Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0, hugely crashed at Bilbao and taking a best race result of fourth at Oschersleben to finish twenty-fourth in the standings. In 2006 Afanasiev moved up to new Formula Renault 2.0 Northern European Cup championship for Lukoil Racing team. He finished eighth overall in that year. He also contested ten races of the Formule Renault 2.0 Suisse championship and finishing as runner-up.

Formula 3 Euro Series

In 2007 Afanasyev made his debut in Formula 3 Euro Series for HBR Motorsport team. Also he contested in

Masters of Formula 3 The Masters of Formula 3 was a Formula Three race held annually, usually at the Circuit Park Zandvoort in the Netherlands. Due to noise restrictions in the Zandvoort area, the 2007 and 2008 races were held in the Belgian circuit of Circuit Zolder, ...

at Zolder, but he did not qualify and missed the race.

International Formula Master

Afanasyev took part in

International Formula Master International Formula Master, also known as Formula Super 2000, was a European-based junior single seater formula. The series was conceived as a competitor for Formula Three and made its debut at Valencia in 2007. European television channel Eur ...

for two years with JD Motorsport team. In first season he won one race and finished eighth overall. He also contested in six Formula Renault 3.5 Series races for the KTR team and failed to score a championship point. Afanasyev remained in the series for 2009 season and improved to second place overall.

FIA Formula Two Championship

In 2010 Afanasyev graduated to Formula Two, finishing third in the standings with four podium finishes which gave him the right to receive the F1 licence.

Auto GP

Afanasyev switched to

Auto GP Auto GP, sometimes referred to as the Auto GP World Series and formerly known as both Euro Formula 3000 and the Euroseries 3000, was a European formula racing series. The series' roots can be traced back to 1999 and the Italian Formula 3000 serie ...

for 2011, joining team champions

DAMS A dam is a barrier that stops or restricts the flow of surface water or underground streams. Reservoirs created by dams not only suppress floods but also provide water for activities such as irrigation, human consumption, industrial use, ...

. He was the only who scored three wins, but due to problems with British visa he missed Donington round and finished the season just on third place.

FIA GT1 World Championship

In 2012 Afanasyev and his main sponsor Lukoil decide to leave open-wheels and join

FIA GT1 World Championship The FIA GT1 World Championship was a world championship sports car racing series, developed by the Stéphane Ratel Organisation, SRO Group and regulated by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA), that was held from 2010 to 2012. I ...

with Valmon Racing Team Russia in

Aston Martin Aston Martin Lagonda Global Holdings PLC () is a British manufacturer of Luxury car, luxury sports cars and grand tourers. Its predecessor was founded in 1913 by Lionel Martin and Robert Bamford. Headed from 1947 by David Brown (entrepreneur ...

. His partner that year was

Andreas Zuber Andreas "Andi" Zuber (born 9 October 1983 in Judenburg, Austria) is a former Auto racing, motor racing driver. An Austrian by birth, he is based in Dubai and once raced under a licence issued by the United Arab Emirates. Career Formula König De ...

GT racing

In the end of 2012 Sergey together with Bernd Schneider finished 4th in the Baku City Challenge. In 2013 together with HTP Gravity Charouz team on Mercedes SLS AMG GT3 joined by Andreas Simonsen won the Championship. Next year Andreas left the championship and Sergey was joined by Stef Dusseldorp.

Touring Car Racing

Together with Lukoil Sergey moved to the front wheel driving cars and in 2015–2016 took part in the new championship –

TCR International Series The TCR International Series was an international Touring car racing, touring car championship. The championship was promoted by World Sporting Consulting (WSC), founded by former World Touring Car Championship manager Marcello Lotti. It was ma ...

achieving podiums and the pole-position.

Lamborghini Super Trofeo

In 2017 Afanasyev and Lukoil made a mutual decision to terminate the interaction. Sergey drove two years with ArtLine racing team in the European and Middle East championships in ProAm category achieving the best result as the runner-up. Lamborghini Super Trofeo championship was selected by Jonnesway tools as the General sponsor of Afanasiev, due to the good price-to-performance ratio. Sergey joined the Bonaldi team in 2019 joined by Danny Kroes in the car. Together they won the Chempionship. The best results were achieved in Zandvoort (hometrack of Danny), where they won both races in front of the Dutch fans.

Coming back to GT racing

In November 2019 Afanasyev joined the Black Falcon racing team for the

Kyalami 9 Hours The Nine Hours of Kyalami is an endurance sports car race contested at Kyalami, Midrand, South Africa. The first races were held from 1958 to 1960 at a circuit at the Grand Central Airport near Midrand before moving to Kyalami in 1961. The eve ...

race which was the part of the International GT Challenge. His partners were Patrick Assenheimer and Hubert Haupt in silver class. They were leading most part of the race, but after an accident in heavy rain they finished second. The next race was

Bathurst 12 Hour The Bathurst 12 Hour, currently known as the Meguiar's Bathurst 12 Hour for sponsorship reasons, is an annual endurance race for Group GT3, GT and Production car racing, production cars held at the Mount Panorama Circuit, in Bathurst, New South ...

s. Haupt was not able to join so he was replaced by Michele Beretta. They were leading until the last 4 hours of the race. Issues with the car after a small contact with the wall pushed them back; they finished third.

Racing record