2003 Superbike World Championship | |||
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Support series: Supersport World Championship Superstock European Championship |
The 2003 Superbike World Championship was the sixteenth FIM Superbike World Championship season. The season started on 2 March at Valencia and finished on 19 October at Magny-Cours after 12 rounds.
Rule changes for 2003 allowed 1000cc machines (either twins, triples or four-cylinder) to race. The rule changes in MotoGP which allowed 4-stroke engines starting from 2002 meant that the Japanese manufacturers had focused their resources there; as a result the Superbike World Championship was left with limited factory involvement, [1] with Ducati, Suzuki and the new-for-2003 Carl Fogarty's Foggy Petronas as the only factory teams. As a result of most of the field being formed of Ducati motorcycles, the championship was given the derogatory label of the "Ducati Cup" in some quarters. [2]
The factory Ducati Team entered the only two Ducati 999s in the field, taking 20 wins from 24 races in a season where all races were won by Ducati. Neil Hodgson won the riders' championship and Ducati won the manufacturers' championship.
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Bold – Pole position |
2003 final manufacturers' standings [4] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Pos. | Manufacturer | ESP | AUS | JPN | ITA | GER | GBR | SMR | USA | GBR | NED | ITA | FRA | Pts | ||||||||||||
R1 | R2 | R1 | R2 | R1 | R2 | R1 | R2 | R1 | R2 | R1 | R2 | R1 | R2 | R1 | R2 | R1 | R2 | R1 | R2 | R1 | R2 | R1 | R2 | |||
1 | Ducati | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 600 |
2 | Suzuki | 7 | 6 | 3 | 7 | 5 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 8 | 8 | 5 | 2 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 5 | 7 | 2 | 16 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 306 |
3 | Kawasaki | 11 | 13 | 11 | 11 | 11 | 8 | 14 | 12 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 9 | 11 | 9 | 8 | 13 | 13 | 8 | 7 | 8 | 8 | 10 | 9 | 130 |
4 | Petronas | 12 | 7 | 5 | 8 | 9 | 12 | 13 | Ret | 12 | 14 | 16 | Ret | 7 | 10 | 8 | Ret | 17 | Ret | 6 | 9 | 7 | 7 | 8 | Ret | 118 |
5 | Yamaha | 16 | 11 | 14 | Ret | 12 | 11 | 11 | 11 | 10 | 19 | 12 | 12 | 12 | 15 | 16 | 11 | 11 | 15 | 13 | 12 | 14 | 12 | 69 | ||
6 | Honda | Ret | 16 | 19 | 20 | 6 | 6 | Ret | 15 | Ret | 18 | Ret | Ret | Ret | Ret | 12 | Ret | Ret | Ret | Ret | DNS | 18 | 16 | 13 | 13 | 31 |
Aprilia | Ret | DNS | 0 | |||||||||||||||||||||||
Pos. | Manufacturer | ESP | AUS | JPN | ITA | GER | GBR | SMR | USA | GBR | NED | ITA | FRA | Pts |
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