2003 German Grand Prix

2003 German Grand Prix
Race 12 of 16 in the 2003 Formula One World Championship ←  Previous race Next race  →
Race details
Date	3 August 2003
Official name	Grosser Mobil 1 Preis von Deutschland 2003
Location	Hockenheimring, Hockenheim, Germany
Course	Permanent racing facility
Course length	4.574 km (2.842 miles)
Distance	67 laps, 306.458 km (190.424 miles)
Weather	Sunny and warm, Track: 50 °C (122 °F)
Pole position
Driver	Juan Pablo Montoya	Williams-BMW
Time	1:15.167
Fastest lap
Driver	Juan Pablo Montoya	Williams-BMW
Time	1:14.917 on lap 14
Podium
First	Juan Pablo Montoya	Williams-BMW
Second	David Coulthard	McLaren-Mercedes
Third	Jarno Trulli	Renault
Lap leaders

The 2003 German Grand Prix (officially known as the Grosser Mobil 1 Preis von Deutschland 2003) was a Formula One motor race that took place on 3 August 2003 at the Hockenheimring in Hockenheim, Germany. It was the twelfth round of the 2003 Formula One World Championship. Juan Pablo Montoya took pole position for the race in the BMW Williams and went on to take the race win, ahead of David Coulthard for McLaren and Jarno Trulli for Renault.

Background

The event was held at the Hockenheimring in Hockenheim for the 27th time in the circuit's history, across the weekend of 1-3 August. The Grand Prix was the twelfth round of the 2003 Formula One World Championship and the 56th running of the German Grand Prix as part of the Formula One World Championship. ^{[1] [2]}

Championship standings before the race

Going into the weekend, Michael Schumacher led the Drivers' Championship with 69 points, 7 points ahead of Kimi Räikkönen in second and 14 ahead of Juan Pablo Montoya in third. ^[3] Ferrari, with 118 points, led the Constructors' Championship from BMW Williams and McLaren, who were second and third with 108 and 95 points, respectively. ^[3]

Driver changes

After a string of disappointing results, Antônio Pizzonia was dropped by the Jaguar team. They hired Minardi driver Justin Wilson to replace him, with the Italian team attracting Formula 3000 driver Nicolas Kiesa to complete their line-up. ^{[4] [5]} Pizzonia would return to Formula One in 2004 as a test driver for Williams. ^[6]

Practice

Three free practice sessions were held for the event. ^{[7] [8]} McLaren driver David Coulthard set the fastest time in the first session, ahead of the Renaults of Jarno Trulli and Fernando Alonso, in second and third places respectively. ^{[9] [10]} The second session was topped by Juan Pablo Montoya in the BMW Williams, ahead of Rubens Barrichello and Ralf Schumacher. ^{[11] [12]} The same three led the third practice session, but now in the order Schumacher, Barrichello, Montoya. ^{[13] [14]}

Friday drivers

Three teams in the 2003 Constructors' Championship had the right to run a third car during an additional private testing session on Friday. These drivers did not compete in qualifying or the race. ^[7]

Constructor	Nat	Driver
Renault		Allan McNish
Jordan-Ford		Zsolt Baumgartner
Minardi-Cosworth		Gianmaria Bruni

Qualifying

Qualiyfing consisted of two one-hour sessions, one on Friday and one on Saturday afternoon. The first session's running order was determined by the Drivers' Championship standings, with the leading driver going first. Each driver was allowed to set one lap time. The result determined the running order in the second session: the fastest driver in the first session was allowed to go last in the second session, which usually provided the benefit of a cleaner track. Drivers were again allowed to set one lap time, which determined the order on the grid for the race on Sunday, with the fastest driver scoring pole position. ^{[7] [15]}

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Q1 Time	Q2 Time	Gap
1	3	Juan Pablo Montoya	Williams-BMW	1:14.673	1:15.167	—
2	4	Ralf Schumacher	Williams-BMW	1:14.427	1:15.185	+0.018
3	2	Rubens Barrichello	Ferrari	1:15.399	1:15.488	+0.321
4	7	Jarno Trulli	Renault	1:15.004	1:15.679	+0.512
5	6	Kimi Räikkönen	McLaren-Mercedes	1:15.276	1:15.874	+0.707
6	1	Michael Schumacher	Ferrari	1:15.456	1:15.898	+0.731
7	20	Olivier Panis	Toyota	1:15.471	1:16.034	+0.867
8	8	Fernando Alonso	Renault	1:15.214	1:16.483	+1.316
9	21	Cristiano da Matta	Toyota	1:16.450	1:16.550	+1.383
10	5	David Coulthard	McLaren-Mercedes	1:15.557	1:16.666	+1.499
11	14	Mark Webber	Jaguar-Cosworth	1:15.030	1:16.775	+1.608
12	11	Giancarlo Fisichella	Jordan-Ford	1:17.111	1:16.831	+1.664
13	16	Jacques Villeneuve	BAR-Honda	No time 1	1:17.090	+1.923
14	10	Heinz-Harald Frentzen	Sauber-Petronas	1:15.968	1:17.169	+2.002
15	9	Nick Heidfeld	Sauber-Petronas	1:15.985	1:17.557	+2.390
16	15	Justin Wilson	Jaguar-Cosworth	1:15.373	1:18.021	+2.854
17	17	Jenson Button	BAR-Honda	1:15.754	1:18.085	+2.918
18	12	Ralph Firman	Jordan-Ford	1:17.044	1:18.341	+3.174
19	19	Jos Verstappen	Minardi-Cosworth	1:17.702	1:19.023	+3.856
20	18	Nicolas Kiesa	Minardi-Cosworth	No time 2	1:19.174	+4.007
Sources: [16] [17] [18]

Notes

• ^1 – Jacques Villeneuve was left without time in Q1 after spinning off the track and abandoning the attempt. ^[19]
• ^2 – Nicolas Kiesa was left without a time in Q1, due to an anti-stall system issue in the car. ^[19]

Race

The race was held on 3 August 2003 and was run for 67 laps. ^{[1] [20]}

Race report

Kimi Räikkönen and Ralph Firman were among the six drivers that retired on the first lap.

Juan Pablo Montoya wins the Grand Prix.

At the start, Juan Pablo Montoya kept his lead but teammate Ralf Schumacher with a bad start was under threat from Rubens Barrichello and Kimi Räikkönen. The German moved to the left and, knowingly or not, squeezed his rivals. The two collided and crashed out of the race, before Schumacher retired at the end of the lap with damage to his sidepod. In a reaction to the frontrunners braking, Heinz-Harald Frentzen was hit from behind by Ralph Firman and Jacques Villeneuve was spun by Justin Wilson. Wilson and Firman then collided to complete the mayhem. ^{[19] [21] [22]}

The safety car was deployed to clear the track and after four laps the race resumed. Montoya was leading the Renaults of Jarno Trulli and Fernando Alonso. After the first round of pit stops, Montoya had stretched his lead to over twelve seconds, despite experiencing issues with his throttle. Michael Schumacher overtook Alonso on lap 30, but the pack was now more than 20 seconds behind the leader. After two more rounds of pit stops, Schumacher also passed Trulli, but with four laps to go, his rear left tyre burst and he retreated to the pits for a replacement. Montoya won the race, over a minute ahead of tenth-starting David Coulthard in second and Trulli in third. The Italian was treated by the doctors for suffering a heat stroke. ^{[23] [24]}

This was Montoya's second win, Coulthard's second podium and Trulli's first podium of the season. With Olivier Panis and Cristiano da Matta finishing fifth and sixth, respectively, this was Toyota's first double points finish. Finally, it was Michael Schumacher's worst race since his retirement in Brazil, decreasing his lead in the Drivers' Championship to just six points over Montoya. ^{[19] [22]}

Race classification

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	3	Juan Pablo Montoya	Williams-BMW	67	1:28:48.769	1	10
2	5	David Coulthard	McLaren-Mercedes	67	+1:05.459	10	8
3	7	Jarno Trulli	Renault	67	+1:09.060	4	6
4	8	Fernando Alonso	Renault	67	+1:09.344	8	5
5	20	Olivier Panis	Toyota	66	+1 Lap	7	4
6	21	Cristiano da Matta	Toyota	66	+1 Lap	9	3
7	1	Michael Schumacher	Ferrari	66	+1 Lap	6	2
8	17	Jenson Button	BAR-Honda	66	+1 Lap	17	1
9	16	Jacques Villeneuve	BAR-Honda	65	+2 Laps	13
10	9	Nick Heidfeld	Sauber-Petronas	65	+2 Laps	15
11	14	Mark Webber	Jaguar-Cosworth	64	Accident	11
12	18	Nicolas Kiesa	Minardi-Cosworth	62	+5 Laps	20
13	11	Giancarlo Fisichella	Jordan-Ford	60	Engine	12
Ret	19	Jos Verstappen	Minardi-Cosworth	23	Hydraulics	19
Ret	15	Justin Wilson	Jaguar-Cosworth	6	Gearbox	16
Ret	4	Ralf Schumacher	Williams-BMW	1	Collision damage	2
Ret	10	Heinz-Harald Frentzen	Sauber-Petronas	1	Collision damage	14
Ret	2	Rubens Barrichello	Ferrari	0	Collision	3
Ret	6	Kimi Räikkönen	McLaren-Mercedes	0	Collision	5
Ret	12	Ralph Firman	Jordan-Ford	0	Collision	18
Source: [25]

Championship standings after the race

• Bold text and an asterisk indicates who still has a theoretical chance of becoming World Champion.

Drivers' Championship standings +/– Pos Driver Points 1 Michael Schumacher* 71 1 2 Juan Pablo Montoya* 65 1 3 Kimi Räikkönen* 62 4 Ralf Schumacher* 53 5 Rubens Barrichello* 49 Source: [26]

Constructors' Championship standings +/– Pos Constructor Points 1 Ferrari* 120 2 Williams-BMW* 118 3 McLaren-Mercedes* 103 4 Renault* 66 5 BAR-Honda 15 Source: [26]

• Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.

References

1. "2003 German Grand Prix". MotorsportMagazine. Retrieved 6 August 2025.
2. "Grands Prix Germany". StatsF1. Retrieved 10 August 2025.
3. Jones, Bruce (2004). "Final Tables 2003". The Official ITV Sport Guide: 2004 FIA Formula One World Championship . Carlton Books. pp. 100–101. ISBN   1-84442-811-7 – via Internet Archive.
4. "Wilson moves to Jaguar". BBC Sport. 21 July 2003. Archived from the original on 3 June 2004. Retrieved 23 October 2019.
5. Rowlinson, Anthony (31 July 2003). "Wilson now a big cat after night prowl". The Daily Telegraph . Archived from the original on 21 October 2019. Retrieved 21 October 2019.
6. "Pizzonia confirmed at Williams". Autosport . 10 February 2004. Retrieved 10 August 2025.
7. Domenjoz, Luc, ed. (2003). "Sporting regulations". Formula 1 Yearbook 2003–04 . Bath, Somerset: Parragon. pp. 220–221. ISBN   978-1-4054-2089-1 – via Internet Archive.
8. "2003 German Grand Prix - Results and Reports". NewsOnF1.com. Retrieved 6 August 2025.
9. "2003 German Grand Prix - Friday Practice Session Results". NewsOnF1.com. Retrieved 6 August 2025.
10. "GROSSER MOBIL 1 PREIS VON DEUTSCHLAND 2003 - PRACTICE 1". Formula1.com. Retrieved 6 August 2025.
11. "2003 German Grand Prix - First Saturday Practice Session Results". NewsOnF1.com. Retrieved 6 August 2025.
12. "GROSSER MOBIL 1 PREIS VON DEUTSCHLAND 2003 - PRACTICE 2". Formula1.com. Retrieved 6 August 2025.
13. "2003 German Grand Prix - Second Saturday Practice Session Results". NewsOnF1.com. Retrieved 6 August 2025.
14. "GROSSER MOBIL 1 PREIS VON DEUTSCHLAND 2003 - PRACTICE 3". Formula1.com. Retrieved 6 August 2025.
15. "Deciding the grid - A history of F1 qualifying formats". formula1.com. Retrieved 25 July 2025.
16. "Grosser Mobil 1 Preis von Deutschland 2003 – Qualifying 1". Formula1.com. Retrieved 30 September 2023.
17. "Grosser Mobil 1 Preis von Deutschland 2003 – Qualifying 2". Formula1.com. Retrieved 30 September 2023.
18. "2003 German Grand Prix Classification Grid". Motorsport Stats. Retrieved 30 September 2023.
19. Elizalde, Pablo (6 August 2003). "The 2003 German GP Review". AtlasF1. Retrieved 6 August 2025.
20. "10. Germany 2003". StatsF1. Retrieved 6 August 2025.
21. "2003 German GP Sunday". Autosport.com. 12 March 2011. Retrieved 6 August 2025.
22. "Race Notes - Montoya dominates German GP". GrandPrix.com. 3 August 2003. Retrieved 6 August 2025.
23. "GROSSER MOBIL 1 PREIS VON DEUTSCHLAND 2003 - RACE RESULT". formula1.com. Retrieved 6 August 2025.
24. "2003 German Grand Prix Race Results". NewsOnF1.com. Retrieved 6 August 2025.
25. "2003 German Grand Prix". Formula1.com. Formula1.com Limited. Archived from the original on 26 December 2014. Retrieved 26 December 2015.
26. "Germany 2003 - Championship • STATS F1". www.statsf1.com. Retrieved 18 March 2019.

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