2003 Spanish Grand Prix

The 2003 Spanish Grand Prix (officially known as the Gran Premio Marlboro de España 2003)^[3] was a Formula One motor race that took place on 4 May 2003 at the Circuit de Catalunya in Montmeló, Spain. It was the fifth round of the 2003 Formula One World Championship.

2003 Spanish Grand Prix
Race 5 of 16 in the 2003 Formula One World Championship ← Previous race Next race →
Race details
Date	4 May 2003 (2003-05-04)
Official name	Gran Premio Marlboro 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. Track temperature: 35°C[2]
Attendance	96,000
Pole position
Driver	Michael Schumacher	Ferrari
Time	1:17.762
Fastest lap
Driver	Rubens Barrichello	Ferrari
Time	1:20.143 on lap 52
Podium
First	Michael Schumacher	Ferrari
Second	Fernando Alonso	Renault
Third	Rubens Barrichello	Ferrari
Lap leaders

Michael Schumacher of Scuderia Ferrari took pole position for the race and went on to win it, ahead of Fernando Alonso of Renault and teammate Rubens Barrichello. Ralph Firman scored his only career point by finishing eighth.

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.^[4][5]

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.^[6] McLaren-Mercedes, with 51 points, led the Constructors' Championship from Ferrari and Renault, who were second and third with 32 and 26 points, respectively.^[6]

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.^[7]

Practice

Three free practice sessions were held for the event.^[8][9] The first session on Friday was topped by Ralf Schumacher in the BMW Williams, ahead of the Renaults of Jarno Trulli and Fernando Alonso.^[10] First Saturday practice was led by championship leader Kimi Räikkönen, ahead of Antônio Pizzonia in the Jaguar and Rubens Barrichello in the Ferrari.^[11] Alonso then topped the final practice session, ahead of Rubens Barrichello in the Ferrari and Trulli in third.^[12]

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.^[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]

Notes

• ^1 - Kimi Räikkönen did not set a time in the second session after he went off the circuit in turn seven.^[2]

Race

The start of the 2003 Spanish Grand Prix

The race was held on 4 May 2003 and was run for 65 laps.^[1]

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.^[2][15][16]

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.^[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 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.^[2][15][16]

Race classification

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]

Championship standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings +/– Pos Driver Points 1 Kimi Räikkönen 32 1 2 Michael Schumacher 28 1 3 Fernando Alonso 25 1 4 Rubens Barrichello 20 3 5 David Coulthard 19 Source: [18]

Constructors' Championship standings +/– Pos Constructor Points 1 McLaren-Mercedes 51 2 Ferrari 48 3 Renault 34 4 Williams-BMW 32 5 Jordan-Ford 11 Source: [18]

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