2003 German 500

Background

Main article: 2003 Champ Car World Series#Drivers and teams

The German 500 was the fifth of 18 scheduled open-wheel races for the 2003 Champ Car World Series, the second edition of the event, and the second of two races in Championship Auto Racing Teams (CART)'s European swing; the London Champ Car Trophy was held at Brands Hatch in England the week prior. It was held on May 11, 2003 at EuroSpeedway Lausitz, a three-turn 2.023 mi superspeedway, in Klettwitz, Brandenburg, Germany, and was contested over 154 laps and 311.542 mi. Heading into the race, Paul Tracy held the lead in the Drivers' Championship with 65 points, eleven more than Bruno Junqueira in second. Michel Jourdain Jr. held third on 42 points, ahead of fourth-placed Adrián Fernández with 29 and fifth-placed Patrick Carpentier with 28. In the Constructors' Championship, Lola led with 88 points, while Reynard stood second on 34.

CART's last race at Lausitz, held four days after the September 11 attacks in 2001, was overshadowed by a severe crash which left Alex Zanardi losing both legs. One month after track promoters filed for insolvency, the event was dropped from the series' schedule in 2002, despite CART's expectations that the race would be held as scheduled. The race was again omitted from the schedule in 2003, although an event in Europe was tentatively listed. On January 10, 2003, CART president and CEO Chris Pook and track CEO Hans-Jörg Fischer announced the series' return to Lausitz; additionally, all tickets sold to the cancelled 2002 event would be honored for the 2003 event. CART required each team not to change their aerodynamic configuration from the previous round at Brands Hatch. The road course aero package was expected to decrease speeds below 200 mph and create close pack racing.

Sébastien Bourdais, the winner of the preceding London Champ Car Trophy, expressed anticipation for the German 500 and admitted that he underestimated the skills necessary to compete on an oval track until he completed a preseason test at Phoenix International Raceway. Championship leader Tracy acknowledged the adversity of altering the racing setup from that of a road course like Brands Hatch to a superspeedway like Lausitz, but assured that he would finish well in the race. Junqueira conversely believed that Forsythe Racing's overuse of downforce may place Tracy and Carpentier at a disadvantage compared to other teams. Jourdain Jr. was confident that he could perform well at Lausitz due to Team Rahal's success on superspeedways over the past five years, including a win at the track with Kenny Bräck in 2001.

Practice and qualifying

One 160-minute practice session on Saturday morning preceded the race on Sunday. The first 25 minutes were exclusively reserved for the nine rookie drivers, while the last 135 minutes were open to all competitors. Bourdais set the quickest time of the session at 36.794 seconds, almost a tenth of a second quicker than Newman/Haas Racing teammate Junqueira in second. Mario Domínguez, Alex Tagliani, and Jourdain Jr. rounded out the top-five. The session featured several stoppages for Darren Manning, Rodolfo Lavín, and Tagliani, all of whom slowed to a halt on the track. Debris from Tracy and Oriol Servià's cars also paused the session.

During the qualifying session on Saturday afternoon, the slowest driver of the practice session went out on track first, while the quickest driver went last. Each driver was allowed to complete up to four warm-up laps before running two timed laps, with the fastest of the two determining their starting position. The session was held under cloudy and lukewarm conditions. Bourdais earned the third pole position of his career with a time of 37.000 seconds. He was joined on the grid's front row by Junqueira, who clinched his best qualifying performance of the season thus far, but was displeased that his lap was two tenths of a second slower than Bourdais'. With Bourdais starting first and Junqueira second, Newman/Haas Racing earned their first one-two qualifying effort since the 1995 Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach.

Jourdain Jr. qualified third; however, CART officials noted a modification to his car's air inlet in post-qualifying technical inspection. Because this was a violation of CART's rules, Jourdain Jr. was required to start at the back of the grid and Team Rahal was fined $10,000. The team immediately filed a protest and the series judges ruled in favor of them, meaning that all penalties were revoked and Jourdain Jr. kept the third starting position. Mário Haberfeld and Manning took the remaining positions in the top five, and Domínguez, Servià, Lavín, Tagliani, and Patrick Lemarié took positions sixth through tenth. Many drivers who qualified outside the top ten complained of an excessive amount of drag which hampered their cars. Jimmy Vasser took 11th, ahead of Roberto Moreno in 12th, Alex Yoong in 13th, Tiago Monteiro in 14th, and Ryan Hunter-Reay in 15th. Forsythe Racing teammates Tracy and Carpentier expectedly struggled in qualifying and started 16th and 17th, with Joël Camathias and Fernández taking the last two spots on the grid in 18th and 19th, respectively.

Qualifying classification

Warm-up

The drivers took to the track on Sunday at 10:00 AM CET (UTC+01:00) for a 30-minute warmup session under cloudy conditions. Servià set the fastest time of the session at 37.344 seconds, quicker than his qualifying lap. Jourdain Jr. was eight hundredths of a second slower than Servià in second, with Bourdais, Junqueira, and Yoong occupying the next three positions. Lavín and Junqueira both slowed on the circuit, bringing out two red flags in the session.

Race

Pre-race festivities began with an emotional tone as Zanardi completed 13 ceremonial laps around Lausitz, symbolizing the number of laps he failed to complete in the 2001 American Memorial due to his near-fatal crash. He had also ran 40 laps around the track on Friday evening to assess the car's speed. Zanardi drove a modified 2002 Reynard-built Ford-Cosworth car that was fitted with a hand-controlled accelerator and a boxed pedal assembly which allowed him to apply the brakes with his hip and thigh. The car featured the same livery that Zanardi sported in the 2001 season prior to his accident. Zanardi's 13th lap was his quickest, timing in at 37.487 seconds, which would have placed him fifth on the grid for the forthcoming race. He later stated that he was appreciative of the fans and drivers' support and revealed the creation of his Michigan-based charity, the Alex Zanardi Foundation.

Weather conditions remained hazy around the beginning of the race, although air temperatures improved to between 70 and and track temperatures to between 85 and. Approximately 68,000 people attended the race. Zanardi commanded the drivers to start their engines and series starter J. D. Wilbur waved the green flag at 2:15 PM to start the race. Junqueira pulled ahead of pole sitter Bourdais in the second turn to take the lead. By the third lap, Tracy utilized the outside line to improve his position from 16th to 9th. Bourdais used the draft from Junqueira's car on the back stretch and reclaimed the lead on the fourth lap. Jourdain Jr. slowly reached Junqueira and attempted to pass him on lap 12, but failed and was passed by Domínguez for third place. Junqueira reclaimed the first position from Bourdais seven laps later. The first caution flag of the race was issued on lap 23 when debris was spotted on the second turn. All the leaders elected to make pit stops. As Jourdain Jr. exited his pit stall, he knocked Lavín into Lemarié, who resultantly slammed the inside wall and sustained damage to the right side of his suspension.

Junqueira led the field back up to speed at the restart on lap 28. Domínguez steered to Bourdais' left side and overtook him for second place. Behind the leaders, Tagliani became the race's second retiree that same lap due to a gearbox failure. Bourdais fell to fourth on the 33rd lap as he was passed by Servià in turn two, though Bourdais quickly reclaimed third. Two laps later, Domínguez charged past Junqueira to take the lead. Junqueira was passed by Bourdais and Servià on lap 38, dropping him to fourth place. Over the next 15 laps, Bourdais remained second, but engaged in an intense battle with Domínguez for the lead. On the 51st lap, Bourdais dove to the blend line in an attempt to overtake Domínguez, but quickly turned right and rejoined the track without losing a position. Domínguez led the field into pit road on lap 53 for the second round of pit stops as mandated by CART. He exited pit road first and retained the lead, but was warned by CART officials for blocking Bourdais. Jourdain Jr. was also assessed a 15-second penalty by CART for hitting Lavín and Lemarié on his previous stop.

Domínguez's 0.8-second lead on lap 56 had been reduced to less than a tenth of a second as Bourdais continued their battle for the first position. On the 75th lap, Domínguez nearly forced Bourdais into the inside wall on the front stretch. During the third cycle of pit stops on lap 81, Domínguez was mandated by officials to stay in his pit stall an additional five seconds for aggressive blocking; he rejoined the race in fifth place as Bourdais took the lead. The second caution flag was issued on the 83rd lap for debris, while Yoong retired from the race with mechanical issues. Most of the 16 remaining drivers elected not to make pit stops, with the exceptions of Carpentier, Vasser, Monteiro, and Haberfeld. Green-flag racing resumed on lap 89, and Junqueira promptly overtook Servià for second place. Monteiro made contact with the outside wall on lap 93 and continued without further incident. Junqueira drove alongside Bourdais to take the lead on the 99th lap; the two drivers remained side-by-side with each other, with Bourdais leading on lap 102 and Junqueira on lap 103. The battle concluded a lap later as Junqueira backed off the throttle and fell to fourth place, while Bourdais took the lead once again.

Bourdais led most of the field into pit road on lap 109, allowing Carpentier to assume the lead, and nearly spun into the grass after overapplying the brakes. Jourdain Jr. beat Bourdais out of pit road to take third place, but Bourdais reclaimed the position a lap later. He then took the lead as Vasser, who passed Carpentier on the 112th lap, made a pit stop with Carpentier and stalled. Eight laps later, Junqueira passed Servià on his inside for the fourth position. Domínguez got by Jourdain Jr. for second place on the 129th lap as they maneuvered around Tracy and Monteiro, both of whom had been lapped by this point. Bourdais conceded the lead to Carpentier on lap 138 to make his final pit stop of the race along with several of the leaders. Jourdain Jr. and Domínguez rejoined the track ahead of Bourdais, but by the 142nd lap, Bourdais passed them both to retake the lead as Carpentier made his final stop. Domínguez overtook Jourdain Jr. for second place and followed closely behind Bourdais. For the final six laps, Domínguez made several attempts to pass Bourdais on the outside line, but Bourdais successfully defended his position and earned the second CART victory of his career. Domínguez finished second, 0.084 seconds behind Bourdais, while Jourdain Jr. completed the podium. Junqueira finished fourth after passing Servià on lap 153, with Manning, Carpentier, Vasser, Lavín, and Moreno rounding out the top-ten. The remaining classified finishers were Hunter-Reay, Tracy, Monteiro, Haberfeld, Fernández, and Camathias.

Post-race

Bourdais performed a burnout in front of the spectators before joining Domínguez and Jourdain Jr. in podium celebrations. In a post-race press conference, Bourdais regarded the racing as "fun" and stated: "When we arrived in traffic, the race started properly. I learned quite a lot racing with Mario. I wasn't quite fast enough to overtake when I was side-by-side. But in the last stint, I learned to get through traffic better and the inside line was better. It was a high-speed game but I think I did pretty well." Second-placed Domínguez thanked his team for providing quick pit stops, but opined that his penalty early in the race was unfair: "I'm just very disappointed with the people with CART and the officials because I got a penalty, and they say that I got a penalty for blocking. As far as I'm concerned, I didn't do anything wrong. Sébastien (Bourdais), when I was behind him, he was doing exactly the same thing I was doing, which is okay with me. But, you know, why should I get a penalty for something? I didn't do anything wrong." Jourdain Jr., who finished third, talked about his struggles throughout the race and acknowledged that "I just didn't have anything for (Bourdais and Domínguez), you know.”

Fourth-place finisher Junqueira was disappointed and felt his car wasn't fast enough to challenge Bourdais or Domínguez for the win: "Although there is a spec engine in the series, the power varies. Sébastien and Mario (Domínguez) had the power but not as much experience and it made a difference. [...] Newman/Haas (Racing) is one of the best teams in racing so I am sure we can improve on this.” Despite Servià's fifth-place finish, he was still underwhelmed because he believed his team could win: "The Visteon/Patrick Racing team had two good performances in Europe. We scored a lot of points and moved up several places in the championship standings. However, we are still not happy with our results. The Visteon/Patrick Racing team is capable of winning races and contending for the championship. We just have to keep working hard and improving." Tracy lamented his lackluster performance in the race, which, according to him, was caused by his aero package: "Team Player’s underestimated how the car was going to react on the German superspeedway. And I certainly didn’t expect the car would be this slow. We just weren’t competitive, and it’s hard to compete if your car isn’t on the same level as the others."

The final result left Tracy and Junqueira tied for the lead in the Drivers' Championship as both drivers earned 66 points. Third-placed Jourdain Jr. was ten points in arrears, while Fernández fell to seventh as Bourdais took fourth, Domínguez fifth, and Carpentier sixth. Lola continued to top the standings in the Constructors' Championship with 110 points, 68 more than Reynard, as 13 races remained in the season. Despite the success of the event, CART never raced at Lausitz again because the series could no longer afford to host races in Europe.

Race classification

; Notes

• — Includes two bonus points for winning the pole position and leading the most laps.

Standings after the race

References

Name_of_race = German 500 | Year_of_race = 2003 | Previous_race_in_season = 2003 London Champ Car Trophy | Next_race_in_season = 2003 Milwaukee Mile Centennial 250 | Previous_year's_race = 2001 American Memorial | Next_year's_race = —

References

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