2003 Grand Prix of St. Petersburg

2003 St. Petersburg

Race details
Race 1 of 18 in the 2003 CART season
St. Petersburg Track Layout
Date	February 23, 2003
Official name	Grand Prix of St. Petersburg
Location	Albert Whitted Airport St. Petersburg, Florida, United States
Course	Temporary airport & street circuit 1.806 mi / 2.906 km
Distance	105 laps 189.630 mi / 305.130 km
Weather	Sunny with ambient temperatures reaching 79.0 °F (26.1°C); Wind speeds reaching 11.10 mph (17.86 km/h).
Pole position
Driver	Sébastien Bourdais (Newman/Haas Racing)
Time	1:00.928
Fastest lap
Driver	Sébastien Bourdais (Newman/Haas Racing)
Time	1:01.825 (on lap 29 of 105)
Podium
First	Paul Tracy (Team Player's)
Second	Michel Jourdain Jr. (Team Rahal)
Third	Bruno 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

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		Sébastien Bourdais	Newman/Haas Racing	1:01.676	1:00.928	1:00.928
2		Paul Tracy	Team Player's	1:03.031	1:01.476	1:01.476
3		Adrian Fernández	Fernández Racing	1:02.719	1:01.749	1:01.749
4		Patrick Carpentier	Team Player's	1:02.350	1:01.759	1:01.759
5		Michel Jourdain Jr.	Team Rahal	1:02.512	1:01.812	1:01.812
6		Mario Haberfeld	Mi-Jack Conquest Racing	1:02.720	1:01.865	1:01.865
7		Bruno Junqueira	Newman/Haas Racing	1:01.918	1:01.980	1:01.918
8		Jimmy Vasser	American Spirit Team Johansson	1:03.438	1:01.994	1:01.994
9		Oriol Servià	Patrick Racing	1:02.062	1:02.847	1:02.062
10		Mario Domínguez	Herdez Competition	1:02.280	1:02.101	1:02.101
11		Darren Manning	Walker Racing	1:03.448	1:02.239	1:02.239
12		Ryan Hunter-Reay	American Spirit Team Johansson	1:04.347	1:02.306	1:02.306
13		Alex Tagliani	Rocketsports Racing	1:02.822	1:02.523	1:02.523
14		Patrick Lemarié	PK Racing	1:06.232	1:02.953	1:02.953
15		Roberto Moreno	Herdez Competition	1:04.946	1:03.050	1:03.050
16		Tiago Monteiro	Fittipaldi-Dingman Racing	1:05.170	1:03.987	1:03.987
17		Joël Camathias	Dale Coyne Racing	1:04.773	1:04.241	1:04.241
18		Roberto González	Dale Coyne Racing	1:06.799	1:04.948	1:04.948
19		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	Paul Tracy	Team Player's	105	2:04:28.904	2	21
2	9	Michel Jourdain Jr.	Team Rahal	105	+12.1 secs	5	16
3	1	Bruno Junqueira	Newman/Haas Racing	105	+16.6 secs	7	14
4	34	Mario Haberfeld	Mi-Jack Conquest Racing	105	+41.4 secs	6	12
5	4	Roberto Moreno	Herdez Competition	105	+56.8 secs	15	10
6	12	Jimmy Vasser	American Spirit Team Johansson	104	+ 1 Lap	8	8
7	7	Tiago Monteiro	Fittipaldi-Dingman Racing	104	+ 1 Lap	16	6
8	32	Patrick Carpentier	Team Player's	103	+ 2 Laps	4	5
9	19	Joël Camathias	Dale Coyne Racing	103	+ 2 Laps	17	4
10	27	Patrick Lemarié	PK Racing	102	+ 3 Laps	14	3
11	2	Sébastien Bourdais	Newman/Haas Racing	97	+ 8 Laps	1	4
12	20	Oriol Servià	Patrick Racing	96	+ 9 Laps	9	1
13	15	Darren Manning	Walker Racing	75	Clutch	11	0
14	55	Mario Domínguez	Herdez Competition	71	Contact	10	0
15	51	Adrian Fernández	Fernández Racing	69	Contact	3	0
16	31	Ryan Hunter-Reay	American Spirit Team Johansson	61	Contact	12	0
17	11	Roberto González	Dale Coyne Racing	21	Off Course	18	0
18	5	Rodolfo Lavín	Walker Racing	12	Contact	19	0
19	33	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