2003 Grand Prix of St. Petersburg

The 2003 Grand Prix of St. Petersburg was the first round of the 2003 CART World Series season, held on February 23, 2003, at Albert Whitted Airport and the surrounding streets of St. Petersburg, Florida.

Report

French rookie Sébastien Bourdais took pole position at an average speed of 106.710 mph (171.733 km/h) for the Newman/Haas Racing team. Paul Tracy lined up alongside him, with Adrian Fernández and Patrick Carpentier on row two.

The race began under green, with Bourdais leading into turn one ahead of Tracy. At the end of the first lap, an incident between Bruno Junqueira and rookie Mario Haberfeld occurred when Haberfeld pushed Junqueira along the pit wall, and nearly drove straight into Michel Jourdain Jr. when the Mexican was turning into the first corner. On the third lap, Alex Tagliani struck the tire wall at turn 10, bringing out the first caution of the race.

Bourdais led until lap 31, when he lost the lead to Tiago Monteiro in the first scheduled pit stops. Tracy had pushed enough laps to come out ahead of Bourdais when the pack was finally shuffled after the stops. On lap 42, the Frenchman damaged his car into a concrete wall and had to pit for repairs, leaving him several laps down. This left Tracy unchallenged, the Canadian scoring the first victory of the 2003 season in his first race driving for Team Player's. Jourdain was second and Junqueira finished third.

Qualifying results

Pos	Nat	Name	Team	Qual 1	Qual 2	Best
1	Template:Flagicon	Sébastien Bourdais	Newman/Haas Racing	1:01.676	1:00.928	1:00.928
2	Template:Flagicon	Paul Tracy	Team Player's	1:03.031	1:01.476	1:01.476
3	Template:Flagicon	Adrian Fernández	Fernández Racing	1:02.719	1:01.749	1:01.749
4	Template:Flagicon	Patrick Carpentier	Team Player's	1:02.350	1:01.759	1:01.759
5	Template:Flagicon	Michel Jourdain Jr.	Team Rahal	1:02.512	1:01.812	1:01.812
6	Template:Flagicon	Mario Haberfeld	Mi-Jack Conquest Racing	1:02.720	1:01.865	1:01.865
7	Template:Flagicon	Bruno Junqueira	Newman/Haas Racing	1:01.918	1:01.980	1:01.918
8	Template:Flagicon	Jimmy Vasser	American Spirit Team Johansson	1:03.438	1:01.994	1:01.994
9	Template:Flagicon	Oriol Servià	Patrick Racing	1:02.062	1:02.847	1:02.062
10	Template:Flagicon	Mario Domínguez	Herdez Competition	1:02.280	1:02.101	1:02.101
11	Template:Flagicon	Darren Manning	Walker Racing	1:03.448	1:02.239	1:02.239
12	Template:Flagicon	Ryan Hunter-Reay	American Spirit Team Johansson	1:04.347	1:02.306	1:02.306
13	Template:Flagicon	Alex Tagliani	Rocketsports Racing	1:02.822	1:02.523	1:02.523
14	Template:Flagicon	Patrick Lemarié	PK Racing	1:06.232	1:02.953	1:02.953
15	Template:Flagicon	Roberto Moreno	Herdez Competition	1:04.946	1:03.050	1:03.050
16	Template:Flagicon	Tiago Monteiro	Fittipaldi-Dingman Racing	1:05.170	1:03.987	1:03.987
17	Template:Flagicon	Joël Camathias	Dale Coyne Racing	1:04.773	1:04.241	1:04.241
18	Template:Flagicon	Roberto González	Dale Coyne Racing	1:06.799	1:04.948	1:04.948
19	Template:Flagicon	Rodolfo Lavín	Walker Racing	-*	1:06.527	1:06.527

* Rodolfo Lavin's time from the first qualification session was withdrawn when he changed to a backup car for the second session.

Race

Pos	No	Driver	Team	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	3	Template:Flagicon Paul Tracy	Team Player's	105	2:04:28.904	2	21
2	9	Template:Flagicon Michel Jourdain Jr.	Team Rahal	105	+12.1 secs	5	16
3	1	Template:Flagicon Bruno Junqueira	Newman/Haas Racing	105	+16.6 secs	7	14
4	34	Template:Flagicon Mario Haberfeld	Mi-Jack Conquest Racing	105	+41.4 secs	6	12
5	4	Template:Flagicon Roberto Moreno	Herdez Competition	105	+56.8 secs	15	10
6	12	Template:Flagicon Jimmy Vasser	American Spirit Team Johansson	104	+ 1 Lap	8	8
7	7	Template:Flagicon Tiago Monteiro	Fittipaldi-Dingman Racing	104	+ 1 Lap	16	6
8	32	Template:Flagicon Patrick Carpentier	Team Player's	103	+ 2 Laps	4	5
9	19	Template:Flagicon Joël Camathias	Dale Coyne Racing	103	+ 2 Laps	17	4
10	27	Template:Flagicon Patrick Lemarié	PK Racing	102	+ 3 Laps	14	3
11	2	Template:Flagicon Sébastien Bourdais	Newman/Haas Racing	97	+ 8 Laps	1	4
12	20	Template:Flagicon Oriol Servià	Patrick Racing	96	+ 9 Laps	9	1
13	15	Template:Flagicon Darren Manning	Walker Racing	75	Clutch	11	0
14	55	Template:Flagicon Mario Domínguez	Herdez Competition	71	Contact	10	0
15	51	Template:Flagicon Adrian Fernández	Fernández Racing	69	Contact	3	0
16	31	Template:Flagicon Ryan Hunter-Reay	American Spirit Team Johansson	61	Contact	12	0
17	11	Template:Flagicon Roberto González	Dale Coyne Racing	21	Off Course	18	0
18	5	Template:Flagicon Rodolfo Lavín	Walker Racing	12	Contact	19	0
19	33	Template:Flagicon Alex Tagliani	Rocketsports Racing	3	Contact	13	0

Caution flags

Laps	Cause
5-7	Tagliani (33) contact
13-14	Lavín (5) spin
16-17	Lemarié (27) spin
48-50	Carpentier (32) contact
62-67	Hunter-Reay (31) contact

Notes

Laps Leader 1-30 Sébastien Bourdais 31-34 Tiago Monteiro 35-105 Paul Tracy

Driver Laps led Paul Tracy 71 Sébastien Bourdais 30 Tiago Monteiro 4

• New Track Record Sébastien Bourdais 1:00.928 (Qualification Session #2)
• New Race Record Paul Tracy 2:04:28.904
• Average Speed 91.401 mph

External links

• Full Weekend Times & Results