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Sebastien Bourdais inherited the lead after a pit-stop strategy and won the first CART race at Brands Hatch since 1978, ahead of Junqueira and Dominguez.
The 2003 London Champ Car Trophy was held at Brands Hatch in Kent on 5 May 2003. Sebastien Bourdais won the 165-lap race, while Bruno Junqueira and Mario Dominguez completed the podium.
Sebastien Bourdais won the inaugural London Champ Car Trophy at Brands Hatch on 5 May 2003, the first CART race at the track since 1978. He began from second on the grid and took the lead after a faster pit stop and an extra lap on the track. The 165-lap race was then decided by a gap that grew as Paul Tracy's car failed.
Who won the 2003 London Champ Car Trophy?
Sebastien Bourdais of Newman/Haas Racing won the 165-lap race and took the first CART victory of his career. Bruno Junqueira finished second, 7.835 seconds behind, and Mario Dominguez of Herdez Competition completed the podium.
After a frustrating start to the season, this win gave Bourdais the result he had been chasing. He had been unable to convert earlier pole positions into a finish, and Brands Hatch changed that.
A tight Indy circuit, a gearbox failure for the leader and a first CART win for Bourdais at Brands Hatch.
Why did CART return to Brands Hatch?
Brands Hatch Indy Circuit is a 1.172 mi (1.886 km) road course at West Kingsdown in Kent, and CART had not raced there since 1978, when Rick Mears won for Team Penske. The event was the fourth round of 18 in the 2003 season and the start of a two-week European stretch, with the German 500 following a week later.
The return had been announced at the Autosport International Show in Birmingham on 9 January 2003. Chris Pook, CART's president and chief executive, cited the track's proximity to London and its history. A Grand Prix layout was ruled out because upgrading it to CART standards would have cost too much.
Brands Hatch spent $2 million on safety work before the race. That included 2 miles (3.2 km) of new fencing around the Indy layout, about 38,000 tyres used to build barriers, and reconstruction of much of the guard-railing. The work was finished the day before the official announcement.
How did the championship stand before the race?
Paul Tracy led the Drivers' Championship with 64 points, ahead of Bruno Junqueira on 38 and Michel Jourdain Jr. on 34. Adrian Fernandez was fourth on 28 and Jimmy Vasser fifth on 20. In the Manufacturers' Championship, Lola led Reynard by 36 points.
Tracy had won the previous three races and hoped to take a fourth straight victory, though he said he was not thinking about his run of form. Bourdais had started from pole in two of the first three rounds but retired from the lead in both races, and he wanted a win close to his home country of France.
Darren Manning was the only driver who had raced at Brands Hatch before, and he hoped that experience would help him perform. Tracy warned that the track would be challenging to drive, while Bourdais believed the two qualifying sessions would decide the race.
How did practice and qualifying go?
Three practice sessions took place before the race, two of 50 minutes on 3 May and a longer one of 75 minutes on 4 May. Manning lapped fastest in the first session at 37.953 seconds, and Tracy led the second at 37.263 seconds. Bourdais was second in that session, with Alex Tagliani third.
Two red flags interrupted the practice. The first came when Tracy spun at Druids hairpin and lost his front wing against a tyre barrier, and the second when Tagliani spun at the pit lane entrance. Fernandez caused an earlier stoppage when he spun backwards into a tyre barrier at Surtees corner.
Qualifying ran in two 60-minute sessions, with one driver on track at a time. Each driver had six laps, four of them timed, and the fastest drivers in each session earned a championship point and a front-row start. Tracy took provisional pole with 37.006 seconds, a new track record, 0.016 seconds ahead of Junqueira.
Bourdais looked set to challenge on his final lap but ran wide at Paddock Hill bend and dropped a wheel into the gravel. Once he heard of Bourdais's error, Tracy eased off and used scrubbed tyres to save a fresh set for the race. It was his 14th pole, and the first he had taken since the 2000 Michigan 500 or on a road course since 1994.
Bourdais took second, with Junqueira third, Servia fourth, Tagliani fifth, Fernandez sixth and Dominguez seventh. Manning took eighth, Carpentier ninth and Jourdain Jr. tenth. Tagliani had moved up from seventh after changing the downforce on his back-up car, while Fernandez gained two places on Sunday.
How did the race start?
The race started at 14:00 British Summer Time under partly cloudy skies, with air temperatures between 17 and 18 degrees Celsius. Former drivers Damon Hill, Emerson Fittipaldi and Mario Andretti sent the field away. A caution came on the opening lap, because the first two rows of the grid were not lined up alongside each other when the field went green.
Tracy took the lead at the start and began to pull away. By the eleventh lap he had a 2.088-second advantage over Bourdais, while Junqueira kept third and Tagliani held fourth. Vasser drove into the pit lane early on with suspension damage and retired.
Junqueira then reduced Tracy's margin to 1.401 seconds, and Carpentier set the fastest lap of the race at 38.515 seconds on his 18th circuit. The first round of green-flag pit stops began on lap 49 with Tagliani, Monteiro and Lavin entering the pit lane for fuel and tyres.
How did the pit stops decide the lead?
Manning ran into the gravel at Paddock Hill during those stops, and Haberfeld went wide on cold tyres at Graham Hill bend. Tracy had been running more downforce than his rivals and was using more fuel as a result. He lost two seconds behind the slower Lavin before he pitted on the 55th lap.
Bourdais stayed out for an extra lap with low fuel, which allowed him to take the lead after the stops. He led Tracy by seven-tenths of a second once all of the stops were complete. The two drivers ran within half a second of each other for the next 24 laps, until a second caution was needed for an accident on lap 80.
Yoong had been running behind Moreno when he locked his brakes into Druids and hit the left-hand tyre barrier, retiring the car. During that caution Manning and Tagliani made extra fuel stops because they wanted to push harder, and the mandatory two-stop rule meant they had to make a further stop later on.
How did the race finish?
The safety car was withdrawn at the end of lap 85, and Bourdais led the field through Paddock Hill without incident. Tracy stayed second and the two drivers traded the fastest lap of the race while Junqueira ran a further five seconds back in third. Dominguez moved past Servia for fourth.
The second phase of green-flag stops began on lap 107, when Lemarie and Hunter-Reay came in. Tracy made his stop on the 112th lap, and a light spray of fluid was spotted at the rear of his car. Bourdais made his second stop five laps later, and Tagliani led the field for the next stretch of racing.
On lap 118 Tracy's gearbox failed as he crossed the start-finish line, and his car caught fire at the rear. He pulled to the side at Druids to retire, his first retirement of the season. Fernandez and Hunter-Reay made contact on lap 132, leaving debris near the racing line.
Tagliani made his final stop on the following lap, and that handed the lead back to Bourdais. Bourdais then ran unchallenged over the final 33 laps, weaving through slower traffic on the tight Indy circuit to win by 7.835 seconds from Junqueira. Dominguez completed the podium in third.
What were the final results?
Sebastien Bourdais won from Bruno Junqueira and Mario Dominguez. Oriol Servia finished fourth and Patrick Carpentier fifth. Jourdain Jr., Moreno, Tagliani, Haberfeld and Manning completed the top ten, and the race had two cautions and three lead changes among three drivers.
| Position | Driver | Note |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sebastien Bourdais | Newman/Haas Racing; first CART win |
| 2 | Bruno Junqueira | Newman/Haas Racing; 7.835 seconds behind |
| 3 | Mario Dominguez | Herdez Competition; podium finish |
| 4 | Oriol Servia | Visteon/Patrick Racing; fourth |
| 5 | Patrick Carpentier | Forsythe Racing; fifth |
How did the drivers react?
Bourdais said the win had been a long time coming. He admitted it had been difficult, and said the team had been close to winning in earlier races. He added that Tracy's trouble had helped them and that they had been a bit lucky.
Junqueira said he was pleased to move up in the standings but that he would need to win races to challenge for the title. Dominguez said his team had worked hard for the podium and that he had learned the racing line by following Manning in practice.
Tracy was disappointed and called the retirement very costly for the championship. He said his gearbox had shifted by itself in the laps before it failed. Manning said poor fuel economy had forced him into three pit stops, and that his team had compromised the set-up for the European leg.
How did the media respond?
Media reaction was largely negative. Derick Allsop of The Independent argued that the Indy layout was too tight for Champ Cars and that overtaking was virtually impossible. Richard Polkey of The Guardian said the spectators were entitled to feel let down by a procession, and The Times said the race was never the spectacle its advance publicity had suggested.
The Times argued that using the Grand Prix layout would have produced better racing and kept public interest.
What did the result mean for the championship?
Tracy still led the Drivers' Championship on 65 points, but Junqueira had closed to 11 points behind him. Jourdain Jr. stayed third on 42 points, Fernandez remained fourth on 29 and Carpentier was fifth on 28.
Lola extended its lead over Reynard in the Manufacturers' Championship to 54 points, with 14 races still to run.