| 2003 Spanish Grand Prix | |||||
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Race 5 of 16 in the2003 Formula One World Championship
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| Race details | |||||
| Date | 4 May 2003 (2003-05-04) | ||||
| Official name | Gran PremioMarlboro de España 2003 | ||||
| Location | Circuit de Catalunya,Montmeló,Catalonia,Spain[1] | ||||
| Course | Permanent racing facility | ||||
| Course length | 4.730 km (2.939 miles) | ||||
| Distance | 65 laps, 307.324 km (190.962 miles) | ||||
| Weather | Clear. Tracktemperature: 35°C[2] | ||||
| Attendance | 96,000 | ||||
| Pole position | |||||
| Driver | Ferrari | ||||
| Time | 1:17.762 | ||||
| Fastest lap | |||||
| Driver |  Rubens Barrichello | Ferrari | |||
| Time | 1:20.143 on lap 52 | ||||
| Podium | |||||
| First | Ferrari | ||||
| Second | Renault | ||||
| Third | Ferrari | ||||
Lap leaders | |||||
The2003 Spanish Grand Prix (officially known as theGran Premio Marlboro de España 2003)[3] was aFormula One motor race that took place on 4 May 2003 at theCircuit de Catalunya inMontmeló, Spain. It was the fifth round of the2003 Formula One World Championship.
Michael Schumacher ofScuderia Ferrari tookpole position for the race and went on to win it, ahead ofFernando Alonso ofRenault and teammateRubens Barrichello.Ralph Firman scored his only career point by finishing eighth.
TheCircuit de Catalunya inMontmeló hosted theSpanish Grand Prix for the thirteenth time in the circuit's history, across the weekend of 2-4 May. The Grand Prix was the fifth round of the2003 Formula One World Championship and the 33rd running of the Spanish Grand Prix as a round of the Formula One World Championship.[4][5]
Going into the weekend,Kimi Räikkönen led the Drivers' Championship with 32 points, 13 points ahead of his teammateDavid Coulthard in second and 14 ahead ofMichael Schumacher in third.[6]McLaren-Mercedes, with 51 points, led the Constructors' Championship fromFerrari andRenault, who were second and third with 32 and 26 points, respectively.[6]
Ferrari debuted their new car, theF2003-GA, at this race. "GA" was added to the car's name as a tribute toGianni Agnelli, head ofFiat, who died shortly before the car's unveiling.[7]
Threefree practice sessions were held for the event.[8][9] The first session on Friday was topped byRalf Schumacher in theBMW Williams, ahead of theRenaults ofJarno Trulli andFernando Alonso.[10] First Saturday practice was led by championship leaderKimi Räikkönen, ahead ofAntônio Pizzonia in theJaguar andRubens Barrichello in theFerrari.[11] Alonso then topped the final practice session, ahead ofRubens Barrichello in theFerrari and Trulli in third.[12]
Qualiyfing consisted of two one-hour sessions, one on Friday and one on Saturday afternoons. The first session's running order was determined by the Drivers' Championship standings, with the leading driver going first. Each driver was allowed to set one lap time. The result determined the running order in the second session: the fastest driver in the first session was allowed to go last in the second session, which usually provided the benefit of a cleaner track. Drivers were again allowed to set one lap time, which determined the order on the grid for the race on Sunday, with the fastest driver scoringpole position.[8][13]
| Pos | No | Driver | Constructor | Q1 time | Q2 time | Gap | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 |  Michael Schumacher | Ferrari | 1:17.130 | 1:17.762 | |||
| 2 | 2 | Rubens Barrichello | Ferrari | 1:17.218 | 1:18.020 | +0.258 | ||
| 3 | 8 |  Fernando Alonso | Renault | 1:18.100 | 1:18.233 | +0.471 | ||
| 4 | 7 |  Jarno Trulli | Renault | 1:17.149 | 1:18.615 | +0.853 | ||
| 5 | 17 |  Jenson Button | BAR-Honda | 1:17.613 | 1:18.704 | +0.942 | ||
| 6 | 20 |  Olivier Panis | Toyota | 1:17.746 | 1:18.881 | +1.049 | ||
| 7 | 4 | Ralf Schumacher | Williams-BMW | 1:18.409 | 1:19.006 | +1.244 | ||
| 8 | 5 | David Coulthard | McLaren-Mercedes | 1:18.060 | 1:19.128 | +1.366 | ||
| 9 | 3 |  Juan Pablo Montoya | Williams-BMW | 1:18.607 | 1:19.377 | +1.615 | ||
| 10 | 10 | Heinz-Harald Frentzen | Sauber-Petronas | 1:18.909 | 1:19.427 | +1.665 | ||
| 11 | 16 |  Jacques Villeneuve | BAR-Honda | 1:18.461 | 1:19.563 | +1.801 | ||
| 12 | 14 |  Mark Webber | Jaguar-Cosworth | 1:17.793 | 1:19.615 | +1.853 | ||
| 13 | 21 | Cristiano da Matta | Toyota | 1:17.443 | 1:19.623 | +1.861 | ||
| 14 | 9 | Nick Heidfeld | Sauber-Petronas | 1:19.050 | 1:19.646 | +1.884 | ||
| 15 | 12 |  Ralph Firman | Jordan-Ford | 1:19.195 | 1:20.215 | +2.453 | ||
| 16 | 15 | Antônio Pizzonia | Jaguar-Cosworth | 1:18.528 | 1:20.308 | +2.546 | ||
| 17 | 11 | Giancarlo Fisichella | Jordan-Ford | 1:18.879 | 1:20.976 | +3.214 | ||
| 18 | 18 | Justin Wilson | Minardi-Cosworth | 1:21.100 | 1:22.104 | +4.342 | ||
| 19 | 19 |  Jos Verstappen | Minardi-Cosworth | 1:20.822 | 1:22.237 | +4.475 | ||
| 20 | 6 |  Kimi Räikkönen | McLaren-Mercedes | 1:17.862 | No time1 | |||
| Source:[14] | ||||||||
The race was held on 4 May 2003 and was run for 65 laps.[1]
At the start, third-startingFernando Alonso was the fastest off the line, quickly overtakingRubens Barrichello and pressuringMichael Schumacher, but coming to the first corner, Barrichello saw a chance round the outside. He re-overtook Alonso, while putting two wheels on the dirt to avoid clashing with his teammate.Jarno Trulli started fourth but fell back and was fighting withDavid Coulthard when the two touched in the first corner, leading to theItalian's immediate retirement and theScot's need for an unscheduledpit stop. Looking back at the grid,Antônio Pizzonia had stalled hisJaguar and, whileJustin Wilson had been able to avoid him, not so for championship leaderKimi Räikkönen. Both drivers retired with terminal damage.[2][15][16]
After five laps behind thesafety car, the race resumed and the top runners slowly spread out, but Alonso did manage to jump Barrichello during the first round of pit stops. Meanwhile, Coulthard had his second accident, this time withJenson Button. TheMcLaren was now too damaged to continue and Button had to change his front wing.[2][15][16]
All through the second half of the race and the final round of stops, Alonso kept pressuring Schumacher, reducing the gap to less than six seconds, but theGerman led his updatedFerrari to the win. Alonso became the firstSpanish driver to score points at hishome race. Behind Barrichello and bothWilliamses,Cristiano da Matta finished in sixth position to score his first points in Formula One, as didRalph Firman, who finished in eighth position.Mark Webber in seventh scored his first points since his debut weekend more than a year ago.[2][15][16]
| Pos | No | Driver | Constructor | Laps | Time/Retired | Grid | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | Michael Schumacher | Ferrari | 65 | 1:33:46.933 | 1 | 10 |
| 2 | 8 | Fernando Alonso | Renault | 65 | +5.716 | 3 | 8 |
| 3 | 2 | Rubens Barrichello | Ferrari | 65 | +18.001 | 2 | 6 |
| 4 | 3 | Juan Pablo Montoya | Williams-BMW | 65 | +1:02.022 | 9 | 5 |
| 5 | 4 | Ralf Schumacher | Williams-BMW | 64 | +1 lap | 7 | 4 |
| 6 | 21 | Cristiano da Matta | Toyota | 64 | +1 lap | 13 | 3 |
| 7 | 14 | Mark Webber | Jaguar-Cosworth | 64 | +1 lap | 12 | 2 |
| 8 | 12 | Ralph Firman | Jordan-Ford | 63 | +2 laps | 15 | 1 |
| 9 | 17 | Jenson Button | BAR-Honda | 63 | +2 laps | 5 | |
| 10 | 9 | Nick Heidfeld | Sauber-Petronas | 63 | +2 laps | 14 | |
| 11 | 18 | Justin Wilson | Minardi-Cosworth | 63 | +2 laps | 18 | |
| 12 | 19 | Jos Verstappen | Minardi-Cosworth | 62 | +3 laps | 19 | |
| Ret | 11 | Giancarlo Fisichella | Jordan-Ford | 43 | Engine | 17 | |
| Ret | 20 | Olivier Panis | Toyota | 41 | Gearbox | 6 | |
| Ret | 10 | Heinz-Harald Frentzen | Sauber-Petronas | 38 | Suspension | 10 | |
| Ret | 5 | David Coulthard | McLaren-Mercedes | 17 | Collision | 8 | |
| Ret | 16 | Jacques Villeneuve | BAR-Honda | 12 | Electrical | 11 | |
| Ret | 7 | Jarno Trulli | Renault | 0 | Collision | 4 | |
| Ret | 15 | Antônio Pizzonia | Jaguar-Cosworth | 0 | Launch control / collision | 16 | |
| Ret | 6 | Kimi Räikkönen | McLaren-Mercedes | 0 | Collision | 20 | |
Source:[17] | |||||||
McLaren's first double DNF since the2002 Malaysian Grand Prix saw Schumacher elevated to second in the Drivers' Championship, closing the gap to leader Räikkönen to four points, whilst Ferrari narrowed their disadvantage to McLaren to just three points. Alonso and Barrichello also moved up one place, while Coulthard was demoted from second to fifth.
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| Previous race: 2003 San Marino Grand Prix | FIA Formula One World Championship 2003 season | Next race: 2003 Austrian Grand Prix |
| Previous race: 2002 Spanish Grand Prix | Spanish Grand Prix | Next race: 2004 Spanish Grand Prix |
| Awards | ||
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| Preceded by 2002 Hungarian Grand Prix | Formula One Promotional Trophy for Race Promoter 2003 | Succeeded by 2004 Bahrain Grand Prix |
41°34′12″N2°15′40″E / 41.57000°N 2.26111°E /41.57000; 2.26111
