2003 Austrian Grand Prix

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.^[2] 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.^[3]

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 with 19 points.^[4] In the Constructors' Championship, McLaren was leading with 51 points, three points ahead of their rival Ferrari. Renault (34 points) and Williams (32 points) contended for fourth place and Jordan was fifth with 11 points.^[4]

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.

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Q1 Time	Q2 Time	Gap	Grid
1	1	Michael Schumacher	Ferrari	1:07.908	1:09.150		1
2	6	Kimi Räikkönen	McLaren-Mercedes	1:08.978	1:09.189	+0.039	2
3	3	Juan Pablo Montoya	Williams-BMW	1:08.839	1:09.391	+0.241	3
4	9	Nick Heidfeld	Sauber-Petronas	1:09.479	1:09.725	+0.575	4
5	2	Rubens Barrichello	Ferrari	1:08.187	1:09.784	+0.634	5
6	7	Jarno Trulli	Renault	1:09.450	1:09.890	+0.740	6
7	17	Jenson Button	BAR-Honda	1:08.831	1:09.935	+0.785	7
8	15	Antônio Pizzonia	Jaguar-Cosworth	1:09.024	1:10.045	+0.895	8
9	11	Giancarlo Fisichella	Jordan-Ford	1:09.281	1:10.105	+0.955	9
10	4	Ralf Schumacher	Williams-BMW	No time1	1:10.279	+1.129	10
11	20	Olivier Panis	Toyota	1:09.764	1:10.402	+1.252	11
12	16	Jacques Villeneuve	BAR-Honda	1:08.680	1:10.618	+1.468	12
13	21	Cristiano da Matta	Toyota	1:10.370	1:10.834	+1.684	13
14	5	David Coulthard	McLaren-Mercedes	1:08.947	1:10.893	+1.743	14
15	10	Heinz-Harald Frentzen	Sauber-Petronas	1:10.055	1:11.307	+2.157	15
16	12	Ralph Firman	Jordan-Ford	1:11.171	1:11.505	+2.355	16
17	14	Mark Webber	Jaguar-Cosworth	1:08.512	1:11.662	+2.512	17
18	18	Justin Wilson	Minardi-Cosworth	1:11.056	1:14.508	+5.358	18
19	8	Fernando Alonso	Renault	1:09.680	1:20.113	+10.963	19
20	19	Jos Verstappen	Minardi-Cosworth	1:10.894	No time2		20
Sources:[5][6][7]

Notes

• ^1 – Ralf Schumacher did not get any time in Q1 after going off the track at the fourth corner.
• ^2 – Jos Verstappen did not get time in Q2 due to gearbox problems.

Summarize Timeline Top Qs Fact Check

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.^[8]

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 favour. 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.^[9]

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.^[10] 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.

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Tyre	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	1	Michael Schumacher	Ferrari	B	69	1:24:04.888	1	10
2	6	Kimi Räikkönen	McLaren-Mercedes	M	69	+3.362	2	8
3	2	Rubens Barrichello	Ferrari	B	69	+3.951	5	6
4	17	Jenson Button	BAR-Honda	B	69	+42.243	7	5
5	5	David Coulthard	McLaren-Mercedes	M	69	+59.740	14	4
6	4	Ralf Schumacher	Williams-BMW	M	68	+1 Lap	10	3
7	14	Mark Webber	Jaguar-Cosworth	M	68	+1 Lap	PL3	2
8	7	Jarno Trulli	Renault	M	68	+1 Lap	6	1
9	15	Antônio Pizzonia	Jaguar-Cosworth	M	68	+1 Lap	8
10	21	Cristiano da Matta	Toyota	M	68	+1 Lap	13
11	12	Ralph Firman	Jordan-Ford	B	68	+1 Lap	16
12	16	Jacques Villeneuve	BAR-Honda	B	68	+1 Lap	12
13	18	Justin Wilson	Minardi-Cosworth	B	67	+2 Laps	18
Ret	11	Giancarlo Fisichella	Jordan-Ford	B	60	Fuel system	9
Ret	9	Nick Heidfeld	Sauber-Petronas	B	46	Engine	4
Ret	8	Fernando Alonso	Renault	M	44	Engine/Spin	PL3
Ret	3	Juan Pablo Montoya	Williams-BMW	M	32	Engine	3
Ret	20	Olivier Panis	Toyota	M	6	Suspension	11
Ret	19	Jos Verstappen	Minardi-Cosworth	B	0	Launch control	20
DNS	10	Heinz-Harald Frentzen	Sauber-Petronas	B	0	Clutch	15
Source:[11]

Notes

• ^3 – Mark Webber and Fernando Alonso started from the pit lane.