2003 Austrian Grand Prix

  2003 Austrian Grand Prix

Race details
Race 6 of 16 in the 2003 Formula One season
Date	18 May 2003
Official name	XXVII Großer A1 Preis von Österreich
Location	A1-Ring, Spielberg, Austria
Course	Permanent racing facility
Course length	4.326 km (2.684 mi)
Distance	69 laps, 298.494 km (185.196 mi)
Scheduled Distance	71 laps, 307.146 km (190.564 mi)
Weather	Mostly cloudy with isolated showers in the area
Pole position
Driver	Michael Schumacher	Ferrari
Time	1:09.150
Fastest lap
Driver	Michael Schumacher	Ferrari
Time	1:08.337 on lap 41 (lap record)
Podium
First	Michael Schumacher	Ferrari
Second	Kimi Räikkönen	McLaren-Mercedes
Third	Rubens Barrichello	Ferrari
Lap leaders

The 2003 Austrian Grand Prix (formally the XXVII A1 Grand Prix of Austria) was a Formula One motor race held on 18 May 2003 at the A1-Ring. It was the sixth round of the 2003 Formula One season and the twenty-seventh Austrian Grand Prix. The 69-lap race was won by Michael Schumacher driving a Ferrari car after starting from pole position. Kimi Räikkönen finished second driving for McLaren with Rubens Barrichello third in the other Ferrari. It was the last Austrian Grand Prix to be held until it returned to the renamed Red Bull Ring in 2014.

Report

Background

The Grand Prix was contested by ten teams with two drivers each. The teams (also known as constructors) were Ferrari, Williams, McLaren, Renault, Sauber, Jordan, Jaguar, BAR, Minardi and Toyota.^[1] It was announced in January 2003 that the Austrian Grand Prix would be dropped from the Formula One calendar in 2004, three years before the contract for the race was due to expire. This was because an exit clause was enabled in response to the European Union pushing forward a ban on tobacco advertising to 1 October 2005.^[2]

Before the race, McLaren driver Kimi Räikkönen led the Drivers' Championship with 32 points, ahead of Michael Schumacher (28) and Fernando Alonso (25). Rubens Barrichello was fourth with 20 points, while David Coulthard was a close fifth on 19 points.^[3] In the Constructors' Championship, McLaren were leading with 51 points, three points ahead of their rival Ferrari. Renault (34 points) and Williams (32) contended for fourth place and Jordan were fifth on eleven points.^[3]

Qualifying

Qualifying was interesting, as there was no knowledge of what the weather would be for the race, making tyre and fuel strategy critical. Michael Schumacher qualified on pole despite a huge slide on his best qualifying lap. Championship leader Kimi Räikkönen qualified second, and was given special dispensation from the FIA to change his cracked valve, without incurring the usual penalty for changing an engine.

Race

Fernando Alonso chose to start from the pitlane in the spare car, and Mark Webber chose to start from the pitlane in his regular car. This meant Webber could not change tyres or add fuel until the race started, whereas Alonso could. His Jaguar broke this rule, and so Webber received a 10-second stop/go penalty.^[4]

Cristiano da Matta had a faulty launch control, which caused 2 aborted starts, reducing the race to 69 laps. On the third (and final) formation lap, Heinz-Harald Frentzen's Sauber did not start, and he did not have time to set up the team car.

At the start, Jos Verstappen's launch control broke, and he retired. This caused the safety car to be deployed. Michael eventually led Montoya and Räikkönen when the green flag came out at the end of lap 4. The field remained relatively stable for the next several laps.

After 11 laps, it started to rain lightly, although it was not enough to force cars into the pits. Moments later, Jarno Trulli's Renault spun at turn one and he rejoined without problems. On lap 23, Michael pitted and there was a problem with his fuel filler, possibly caused by the fact that the team had used it to fill up Rubens Barrichello's car, which had a very slow first stop. Some of the fuel that actually did come out of the nozzle hit the bodywork on the sidepods, causing a small fire. The fire was extinguished quickly, and Michael continued in the race, losing about 12 seconds and was now running in third position.

On lap 32, everything turned into Michael's favor. Räikkönen was having engine-related performance problems, and this allowed Schumacher to catch and eventually pass him. On the straight between turns two and three, leader Juan Pablo Montoya's engine blew up. He made it back to the garage, and Michael was back in the lead. Alonso was on a good run despite starting from the pit lane, and was running in the top five when he spun off course at turn one, on what turned out to be his own oil caused by a blown engine in his Renault. Michael eventually set the fastest lap of the day, at an average speed of 227.894 km/h.^[5]

After the second round of stops, Barrichello closed up on second-place Räikkönen, but was unable to pass him due to some good defensive moves by Kimi, despite his car being clearly faster. Michael eventually went on to win the race, his third successive of the season.^[6] Jenson Button finished fourth for BAR despite being disappointed in qualifying, and David Coulthard's race was uneventful in fifth place. Ralf Schumacher was sixth, Webber finished a brilliant seventh despite his penalties, and Trulli was eighth for the final point. Despite causing the aborted starts earlier in the day, da Matta finished the race, a lap down in tenth position.

Classification

Qualifying

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Q1 Time	Q2 Time	Gap
1	1	Michael Schumacher	Ferrari	1:07.908	1:09.150
2	6	Kimi Räikkönen	McLaren-Mercedes	1:08.978	1:09.189	+0.039
3	3	Juan Pablo Montoya	Williams-BMW	1:08.839	1:09.391	+0.241
4	9	Nick Heidfeld	Sauber-Petronas	1:09.479	1:09.725	+0.575
5	2	Rubens Barrichello	Ferrari	1:08.187	1:09.784	+0.634
6	7	Jarno Trulli	Renault	1:09.450	1:09.890	+0.740
7	17	Jenson Button	BAR-Honda	1:08.831	1:09.935	+0.785
8	15	Antônio Pizzonia	Jaguar-Cosworth	1:09.024	1:10.045	+0.895
9	11	Giancarlo Fisichella	Jordan-Ford	1:09.281	1:10.105	+0.955
10	4	Ralf Schumacher	Williams-BMW	No Time	1:10.279	+1.129
11	20	Olivier Panis	Toyota	1:09.764	1:10.402	+1.252
12	16	Jacques Villeneuve	BAR-Honda	1:08.680	1:10.618	+1.468
13	21	Cristiano da Matta	Toyota	1:10.370	1:10.834	+1.684
14	5	David Coulthard	McLaren-Mercedes	1:08.947	1:10.893	+1.743
15	10	Heinz-Harald Frentzen	Sauber-Petronas	1:10.055	1:11.307	+2.157
16	12	Ralph Firman	Jordan-Ford	1:11.171	1:11.505	+2.355
17	14	Mark Webber	Jaguar-Cosworth	1:08.512	1:11.662	+2.512
18	18	Justin Wilson	Minardi-Cosworth	1:11.056	1:14.508	+5.358
19	8	Fernando Alonso	Renault	1:09.680	1:20.113	+10.963
20	19	Jos Verstappen	Minardi-Cosworth	1:10.894	No Time

Race

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	1	Michael Schumacher	Ferrari	69	1:24:04.888	1	10
2	6	Kimi Räikkönen	McLaren-Mercedes	69	+3.362	2	8
3	2	Rubens Barrichello	Ferrari	69	+3.951	5	6
4	17	Jenson Button	BAR-Honda	69	+42.243	7	5
5	5	David Coulthard	McLaren-Mercedes	69	+59.740	14	4
6	4	Ralf Schumacher	Williams-BMW	68	+1 Lap	10	3
7	14	Mark Webber	Jaguar-Cosworth	68	+1 Lap	17	2
8	7	Jarno Trulli	Renault	68	+1 Lap	6	1
9	15	Antônio Pizzonia	Jaguar-Cosworth	68	+1 Lap	8
10	21	Cristiano da Matta	Toyota	68	+1 Lap	13
11	12	Ralph Firman	Jordan-Ford	68	+1 Lap	16
12	16	Jacques Villeneuve	BAR-Honda	68	+1 Lap	12
13	18	Justin Wilson	Minardi-Cosworth	67	+2 Laps	18
Ret	11	Giancarlo Fisichella	Jordan-Ford	60	Fuel system	9
Ret	9	Nick Heidfeld	Sauber-Petronas	46	Engine	4
Ret	8	Fernando Alonso	Renault	44	Engine/Spin	19
Ret	3	Juan Pablo Montoya	Williams-BMW	32	Engine	3
Ret	20	Olivier Panis	Toyota	6	Suspension	11
Ret	19	Jos Verstappen	Minardi-Cosworth	0	Clutch	20
DNS	10	Heinz-Harald Frentzen	Sauber-Petronas	0	Clutch	15
Source:[7]

Championship standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings[3] Pos Driver Points 1 Kimi Räikkönen 40 2 Michael Schumacher 38 3 Rubens Barrichello 26 4 Fernando Alonso 25 5 David Coulthard 23

Constructors' Championship standings[3] Pos Constructor Points 1 Ferrari 64 2 McLaren-Mercedes 63 3 Renault 35 4 Williams-BMW 35 5 Jordan-Ford 11

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

References

1. "2003 Entry List". FIA.com. Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile. Archived from the original on 12 August 2003. Retrieved 12 July 2014.
2. "Early end for Austrian GP". BBC Sport. BBC. 27 January 2003. Retrieved 13 October 2015.
3. "Drivers' and Constructors' Final Standings". FIA.com. Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile. Archived from the original on 15 February 2004. Retrieved 13 October 2015.
4. "AUSTRIAN GP - SUNDAY - RACE REPORT". 19 May 2003. Retrieved 9 January 2015.
5. "2003 Austrian Grand Prix fastest laps". Statsf1.com. Retrieved 16 May 2015.
6. "2003 Austrian Grand Prix results". Statsf1.com. Retrieved 16 May 2015.
7. "2003 Austrian Grand Prix". Formula1.com. Formula1.com Limited. Archived from the original on 26 December 2014. Retrieved 26 December 2015.

Coordinates: 47°13′11″N 14°45′53″E / 47.21972°N 14.76472°E