# 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 | 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 |