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2003 Grand Prix of St. Petersburg

Coordinates: 27°46′0.4″N 82°37′54.3″W / 27.766778°N 82.631750°W / 27.766778; -82.631750
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
United States 2003 St. Petersburg
Race details
Race 1 of 18 in the 2003 CART season
St. Petersburg Track Layout
DateFebruary 23, 2003
Official nameGrand Prix of St. Petersburg
LocationAlbert Whitted Airport
St. Petersburg, Florida, United States
CourseTemporary airport & street circuit
1.806 mi / 2.906 km
Distance105 laps
189.630 mi / 305.130 km
WeatherSunny with ambient temperatures reaching 79.0 °F (26.1°C); Wind speeds reaching 11.10 mph (17.86 km/h).[1]
Pole position
DriverSébastien Bourdais (Newman/Haas Racing)
Time1:00.928
Fastest lap
DriverSébastien Bourdais (Newman/Haas Racing)
Time1:01.825 (on lap 29 of 105)
Podium
FirstPaul Tracy (Team Player's)
SecondMichel Jourdain Jr. (Team Rahal)
ThirdBruno Junqueira (Newman/Haas Racing)

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

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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

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

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

Caution flags

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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

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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

References

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  1. ^ "Weather information for the 2003 St. Petersburg Grand Prix".
[edit]


Previous race:
2002 Gran Premio Telmex-Gigante
Previous Season
CART Indycar World Series
2003 season
Next race:
2003 Tecate Telmex Monterrey Grand Prix
Previous race:
First Event
2003 Grand Prix of St. Petersburg Next race:
2005 Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg
IndyCar Series event

27°46′0.4″N 82°37′54.3″W / 27.766778°N 82.631750°W / 27.766778; -82.631750