2003 Spanish Grand Prix

Background

The Circuit de Catalunya in Montmeló hosted the Spanish 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 the 2003 Formula One World Championship and the 33rd running of the Spanish Grand Prix as a round of the Formula One World Championship.

Championship standings before the race

Going into the weekend, Kimi Räikkönen led the Drivers' Championship with 32 points, 13 points ahead of his teammate David Coulthard in second and 14 ahead of Michael Schumacher in third. McLaren-Mercedes, with 51 points, led the Constructors' Championship from Ferrari and Renault, who were second and third with 32 and 26 points, respectively.

Updated Ferrari

Ferrari debuted their new car, the F2003-GA, at this race. "GA" was added to the car's name as a tribute to Gianni Agnelli, head of Fiat, who died shortly before the car's unveiling.

Practice

Three free practice sessions were held for the event. The first session on Friday was topped by Ralf Schumacher in the BMW Williams, ahead of the Renaults of Jarno Trulli and Fernando Alonso. First Saturday practice was led by championship leader Kimi Räikkönen, ahead of Antônio Pizzonia in the Jaguar and Rubens Barrichello in the Ferrari. Alonso then topped the final practice session, ahead of Rubens Barrichello in the Ferrari and Trulli in third.

Qualifying

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 scoring pole position.

;Notes

• • Kimi Räikkönen did not set a time in the second session after he went off the circuit in turn seven.

Race

The race was held on 4 May 2003 and was run for 65 laps.

Race report

At the start, third-starting Fernando Alonso was the fastest off the line, quickly overtaking Rubens Barrichello and pressuring Michael 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 with David Coulthard when the two touched in the first corner, leading to the Italian's immediate retirement and the Scot's need for an unscheduled pit stop. Looking back at the grid, Antônio Pizzonia had stalled his Jaguar and, while Justin Wilson had been able to avoid him, not so for championship leader Kimi Räikkönen. Both drivers retired with terminal damage.

After five laps behind the safety 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 with Jenson Button. The McLaren was now too damaged to continue and Button had to change his front wing.

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 the German led his updated Ferrari to the win. Alonso became the first Spanish driver to score points at his home race. Behind Barrichello and both Williamses, Cristiano da Matta finished in sixth position to score his first points in Formula One, as did Ralph Firman, who finished in eighth position. Mark Webber in seventh scored his first points since his debut weekend more than a year ago.

Race classification

Championship standings after the race

McLaren's first double DNF since the 2002 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.

;Drivers' Championship standings

;Constructors' Championship standings

• Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.

References

References

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