2003 Grand Prix motorcycle racing season
The 2003 Grand Prix motorcycle racing season was the 55th F.I.M. Road racing World Championship season. The season consisted of 16 races, beginning with the Japanese motorcycle Grand Prix on 6 April 2003 and ending with the Valencian Community motorcycle Grand Prix on 2 November. Season summary. Defending champion Valentino Rossi won his 3rd MotoGP championship in 2003, winning 9 races, highlighted by his win at Phillip Island where he was given a 10-second penalty for passing under a yellow flag and he overcame the penalty by winning the race with more than  10 seconds in hand. Rossi had become dissatisfied with his relationship with the Honda Racing Corporation and as the season progressed and HRC tried to get Rossi to sign a new contract, Rossi demurred until finally announcing at the end of the year that he would be leaving Honda. He soon signed with Yamaha and took Jeremy Burgess with him to be his crew chief. The season was marred by Daijiro Kato being killed at the first round at Suzuka. He lost control of his motorcycle on the approach to the Casio Triangle and hit a barrier at high speed . His heart was restarted by track paramedics, but he did not wake from a coma and died 2 weeks later. Controversy arose because the race was not red-flagged to allow Kato to be removed from the track with maximum care. Suzuka has since been removed from the MotoGP calendar. Teammate Sete Gibernau would inherit Kato's factory-spec RC211V. MotoGP rookies for 2003 included Nicky Hayden (Rookie of the Year), Troy Bayliss, Marco Melandri and Colin Edwards. A new constructor also arrived: Ducati. After much success in Superbike racing, Ducati returned to the premier-class of GP with their  GP3. It made an immediate impression with its raw speed, and they finished the constructor's championship in second place, ahead of Yamaha and behind Honda. 2003 Grand Prix season calendar. On 12 July 2002, the FIM confirmed the 2003 pre-calendar. The South African GP was originally scheduled to run as the new season opener before the Japanese GP on this pre-calendar. On 16 October 2002, the FIM confirmed the 2003 calendar. In it, the South African and Japanese Grands Prix were switched around again. The following Grands Prix were scheduled to take place in 2003: Calendar changes . There were no calendar changes for the 2003 season. Regulation changes. The following changes are made to the regulation for the 2003 season: Sporting regulations. For this year, the rules will changed regarding the neutralisation of a race. This only applies to the MotoGP class. If the circumstances change in such a significant way due to weather changes, a heavy accident or any other reason, a race may be neutralised either once or multiple times and the following rules will apply: In the case of a race restart after neutralisation, the following rules will apply for the MotoGP class only : -who is not behind the rear wheel of the motorcycle in front of him. Points are awarded to the top fifteen finishers. A rider has to finish the race to earn points. Points are awarded to the top fifteen finishers. A rider has to finish the race to earn points. Points are awarded to the top fifteen finishers. A rider has to finish the race to earn points.