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 Cause5-7 Tagliani (33) contact13-14 Lavín (5) spin16-17 Lemarié (27) spin48-50 Carpentier (32) contact62-67 Hunter-Reay (31) contact

Notes Laps Leader1-30 Sébastien Bourdais31-34 Tiago Monteiro35-105 Paul Tracy Driver Laps ledPaul Tracy 71Sébastien Bourdais 30Tiago 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

References

External links Full Weekend Times & Results