Race · Round 16 of 16 · 12 October 2003

2003 Japanese Grand Prix

Rubens Barrichello won for Ferrari from pole at Suzuka Circuit. 4 of the starters were not classified. This round settled the drivers' title for Michael Schumacher.

Dry, with cloud · High of 23 °C, 6.2 mm of rain on the day (modelled, Open-Meteo)

How it is modelled

ERA5's reanalysis, through Open-Meteo, of the circuit's whole local day and not the race's hours, for the grid cell the circuit sits in and not the track, so a shower can be missing from it. Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026. Neither the European Commission nor ECMWF is responsible for any use that may be made of the Copernicus information or data it contains.

Circuit: Suzuka CircuitSuzuka, Japan
Winner: Rubens BarrichelloFerrari
Pole: Rubens Barrichello
Fastest lap: Ralf Schumacher
Entries: 2016 classified

Classification

Classification
Pos	Driver	Constructor	Chassis	Grid	Laps	Out	Points	FL
1	Rubens Barrichello	Ferrari	—	1	53	Finished	10
2	Kimi Raikkonen	McLaren	MP4-17D	8	53	Finished	8
3	David Coulthard	McLaren	MP4-17D	7	53	Finished	6
4	Jenson Button	British American Racing	5	9	53	Finished	5
5	Jarno Trulli	Renault	—	19	53	Finished	4
6	Takuma Sato	British American Racing	5	13	53	Finished	3
7	Cristiano da Matta	Toyota	TF103	3	53	Finished	2
8	Michael Schumacher	Ferrari	—	14	53	Finished	1
9	Nick Heidfeld	Sauber	C22	11	53	Finished	0
10	Olivier Panis	Toyota	TF103	4	53	Finished	0
11	Mark Webber	Jaguar Racing	R4	6	53	Finished	0
12	Ralf Schumacher	Williams	FW25	20	52	Finished	0	fastest lap
13	Justin Wilson	Jaguar Racing	R4	10	52	Finished	0
14	Ralph Firman	Jordan	EJ13	15	51	Finished	0
15	Jos Verstappen	Minardi	PS03	17	51	Finished	0
16	Nicolas Kiesa	Minardi	PS03	18	50	Finished	0
DNF	Giancarlo Fisichella	Jordan	EJ13	16	33	Out of fuel	0
DNF	Fernando Alonso	Renault	—	5	17	Engine	0
DNF	Heinz-Harald Frentzen	Sauber	C22	12	9	Engine	0
DNF	Juan Pablo Montoya	Williams	FW25	2	9	Hydraulics	0

A blank chassis is a season the team ran more than one design and no source says which car raced here.

F1DB layout suzuka-2 · 5.807 km · 18 turns, F1DB’s figures
F1DB, CC BY 4.0 · drawn by Jules Roy
The outline is F1DB’s, for every layout; the trace is OpenStreetMap’s, where it exists.

Grid to flag

Lines run from grid slot to result, ending at the last lap completed. A dashed line ending in a cross is a driver not classified. Nothing between is recorded, so a crossing is not an overtake at that lap.

Grid to flag
Driver	Grid	Result	Laps
Rubens Barrichello	1	1	53
Kimi Raikkonen	8	2	53
David Coulthard	7	3	53
Jenson Button	9	4	53
Jarno Trulli	19	5	53
Takuma Sato	13	6	53
Cristiano da Matta	3	7	53
Michael Schumacher	14	8	53
Nick Heidfeld	11	9	53
Olivier Panis	4	10	53
Mark Webber	6	11	53
Ralf Schumacher	20	12	52
Justin Wilson	10	13	52
Ralph Firman	15	14	51
Jos Verstappen	17	15	51
Nicolas Kiesa	18	16	50
Giancarlo Fisichella	16	DNF	33
Fernando Alonso	5	DNF	17
Heinz-Harald Frentzen	12	DNF	9
Juan Pablo Montoya	2	DNF	9

Qualifying

Qualifying
Pos	Driver	Constructor	No.	Time	Gap	≈ Distance	Interval
1	Rubens Barrichello	Ferrari	2	1:31.713	—	0 m	—
2	Juan Pablo Montoya	Williams	3	1:32.412	+0.699	44 m	+0.699
3	Cristiano da Matta	Toyota	21	1:32.419	+0.706	45 m	+0.007
4	Olivier Panis	Toyota	20	1:32.862	+1.149	73 m	+0.443
5	Fernando Alonso	Renault	8	1:33.044	+1.331	84 m	+0.182
6	Mark Webber	Jaguar Racing	14	1:33.106	+1.393	88 m	+0.062
7	David Coulthard	McLaren	5	1:33.137	+1.424	90 m	+0.031
8	Kimi Raikkonen	McLaren	6	1:33.272	+1.559	99 m	+0.135
9	Jenson Button	British American Racing	17	1:33.474	+1.761	112 m	+0.202
10	Justin Wilson	Jaguar Racing	15	1:33.558	+1.845	117 m	+0.084
11	Nick Heidfeld	Sauber	9	1:33.632	+1.919	122 m	+0.074
12	Heinz-Harald Frentzen	Sauber	10	1:33.896	+2.183	138 m	+0.264
13	Takuma Sato	British American Racing	16	1:33.924	+2.211	140 m	+0.028
14	Michael Schumacher	Ferrari	1	1:34.302	+2.589	164 m	+0.378
15	Ralph Firman	Jordan	12	1:34.771	+3.058	194 m	+0.469
16	Giancarlo Fisichella	Jordan	11	1:34.912	+3.199	203 m	+0.141
17	Jos Verstappen	Minardi	19	1:34.975	+3.262	207 m	+0.063
18	Nicolas Kiesa	Minardi	18	1:37.226	+5.513	349 m	+2.251
19	Ralf Schumacher	Williams	4	—	—	—	—
20	Jarno Trulli	Renault	7	—	—	—	—

Before knock-out qualifying arrived in 2006 there is one time per driver; from 2006, the best lap of each of the three sessions.

How it is derived: distance

Distance at the session-best lap’s average speed, on the layout raced that year.

Pit stops

Bars run in finishing order, ticked at each stop. An unticked bar may hide a stop: F1DB’s record has gaps. A cross is a driver not classified. Ticks and strip mark the lap, not cause, tyres or gain; the table gives times.

Pit stops
Driver	Result	Laps	Stops recorded	Stopped on lap	Pit-lane time (s)
Rubens Barrichello	1	53	3	12, 26, 40	28.6, 28.6, 28.4
Kimi Raikkonen	2	53	2	13, 33	30.4, 30.2
David Coulthard	3	53	3	12, 26, 41	28.2, 28.5, 27.1
Jenson Button	4	53	2	16, 33	30.4, 31.6
Jarno Trulli	5	53	2	11, 32	29.2, 30.5
Takuma Sato	6	53	2	15, 32	30.2, 31.6
Cristiano da Matta	7	53	3	10, 24, 38	28.0, 28.3, 27.9
Michael Schumacher	8	53	3	6, 24, 37	41.4, 28.3, 28.8
Nick Heidfeld	9	53	2	15, 33	29.6, 30.1
Olivier Panis	10	53	3	11, 25, 39	28.8, 28.6, 28.1
Mark Webber	11	53	3	10, 22, 35	28.4, 29.0, 29.9
Ralf Schumacher	12	52	4	14, 24, 38, 41	28.7, 27.5, 28.5, 38.3
Justin Wilson	13	52	3	9, 21, 34	29.1, 28.4, 30.7
Ralph Firman	14	51	2	13, 25	40.3, 35.9
Jos Verstappen	15	51	2	19, 37	30.9, 29.8
Nicolas Kiesa	16	50	2	11, 31	38.4, 36.4
Giancarlo Fisichella	DNF	33	1	14	31.1
Fernando Alonso	DNF	17	1	12	28.6
Heinz-Harald Frentzen	DNF	9	1	9	36.9
Juan Pablo Montoya	DNF	9	0	None recorded	—

A pit-lane time is all of a stop’s time in the pit lane, any wait or repair there included.

Who stopped first, between neighbours

Who stopped first, between neighbours
Drivers, in grid order	Grid	Result	First recorded stop, lap	Stopped first	Grid to flag
Rubens Barrichello · Kimi Raikkonen	1 · 8	1 · 2	12 · 13	Rubens Barrichello	Kept their order
David Coulthard · Kimi Raikkonen	7 · 8	3 · 2	12 · 13	David Coulthard	Swapped places
Kimi Raikkonen · Jenson Button	8 · 9	2 · 4	13 · 16	Kimi Raikkonen	Kept their order
Mark Webber · David Coulthard	6 · 7	11 · 3	10 · 12	Mark Webber	Swapped places
David Coulthard · Jenson Button	7 · 9	3 · 4	12 · 16	David Coulthard	Kept their order
Jenson Button · Jarno Trulli	9 · 19	4 · 5	16 · 11	Jarno Trulli	Kept their order
Jenson Button · Justin Wilson	9 · 10	4 · 13	16 · 9	Justin Wilson	Kept their order
Takuma Sato · Jarno Trulli	13 · 19	6 · 5	15 · 11	Jarno Trulli	Swapped places
Nicolas Kiesa · Jarno Trulli	18 · 19	16 · 5	11 · 11	Same lap	Swapped places
Jarno Trulli · Ralf Schumacher	19 · 20	5 · 12	11 · 14	Jarno Trulli	Kept their order
Cristiano da Matta · Takuma Sato	3 · 13	7 · 6	10 · 15	Cristiano da Matta	Swapped places
Takuma Sato · Michael Schumacher	13 · 14	6 · 8	15 · 6	Michael Schumacher	Kept their order
Cristiano da Matta · Michael Schumacher	3 · 14	7 · 8	10 · 6	Michael Schumacher	Kept their order
Cristiano da Matta · Olivier Panis	3 · 4	7 · 10	10 · 11	Cristiano da Matta	Kept their order
Nick Heidfeld · Michael Schumacher	11 · 14	9 · 8	15 · 6	Michael Schumacher	Swapped places
Michael Schumacher · Ralph Firman	14 · 15	8 · 14	6 · 13	Michael Schumacher	Kept their order
Olivier Panis · Nick Heidfeld	4 · 11	10 · 9	11 · 15	Olivier Panis	Swapped places
Justin Wilson · Nick Heidfeld	10 · 11	13 · 9	9 · 15	Justin Wilson	Swapped places
Olivier Panis · Mark Webber	4 · 6	10 · 11	11 · 10	Mark Webber	Kept their order
Mark Webber · Ralf Schumacher	6 · 20	11 · 12	10 · 14	Mark Webber	Kept their order
Justin Wilson · Ralf Schumacher	10 · 20	13 · 12	9 · 14	Justin Wilson	Swapped places
Justin Wilson · Ralph Firman	10 · 15	13 · 14	9 · 13	Justin Wilson	Kept their order
Ralph Firman · Jos Verstappen	15 · 17	14 · 15	13 · 19	Ralph Firman	Kept their order
Jos Verstappen · Nicolas Kiesa	17 · 18	15 · 16	19 · 11	Nicolas Kiesa	Kept their order

Pairs of classified drivers who started or finished next to each other, each with a stop recorded; the two names in a row are in grid order. Both are read from the stops F1DB records, which has gaps. It is the order things happened in and no more: with no lap times, the record cannot say whether stopping first won or lost a place.

Practice sessions Practice 1 · Practice 2 · Practice 3 · Warm-up

Practice 1

Practice 1
Pos	Driver	Constructor	No.	Best lap	Gap	≈ Distance	Interval	Laps
1	Jarno Trulli	Renault	7	1:30.727	—	0 m	—	15
2	Michael Schumacher	Ferrari	1	1:31.009	+0.282	18 m	+0.282	18
3	David Coulthard	McLaren	5	1:31.019	+0.292	19 m	+0.010	21
4	Rubens Barrichello	Ferrari	2	1:31.217	+0.490	31 m	+0.198	19
5	Fernando Alonso	Renault	8	1:31.276	+0.549	35 m	+0.059	19
6	Kimi Raikkonen	McLaren	6	1:31.303	+0.576	37 m	+0.027	21
7	Juan Pablo Montoya	Williams	3	1:31.654	+0.927	59 m	+0.351	9
8	Mark Webber	Jaguar Racing	14	1:31.977	+1.250	80 m	+0.323	23
9	Olivier Panis	Toyota	20	1:32.011	+1.284	82 m	+0.034	21
10	Cristiano da Matta	Toyota	21	1:32.133	+1.406	90 m	+0.122	25
11	Ralf Schumacher	Williams	4	1:32.208	+1.481	95 m	+0.075	18
12	Takuma Sato	British American Racing	16	1:32.295	+1.568	100 m	+0.087	20
13	Heinz-Harald Frentzen	Sauber	10	1:32.422	+1.695	108 m	+0.127	18
14	Nick Heidfeld	Sauber	9	1:32.694	+1.967	126 m	+0.272	17
15	Justin Wilson	Jaguar Racing	15	1:32.735	+2.008	129 m	+0.041	21
16	Ralph Firman	Jordan	12	1:33.306	+2.579	165 m	+0.571	18
17	Giancarlo Fisichella	Jordan	11	1:33.956	+3.229	207 m	+0.650	17
18	Jenson Button	British American Racing	17	1:34.445	+3.718	238 m	+0.489	9
19	Jos Verstappen	Minardi	19	1:35.180	+4.453	285 m	+0.735	13
20	Nicolas Kiesa	Minardi	18	1:35.900	+5.173	331 m	+0.720	14

Each driver’s best lap of the session and the laps they ran: a classification, not lap timing.

How it is derived: distance

Distance at the session-best lap’s average speed, on the layout raced that year.

Practice 2

Practice 2
Pos	Driver	Constructor	No.	Best lap	Gap	≈ Distance	Interval	Laps
1	Ralf Schumacher	Williams	4	1:32.931	—	0 m	—	15
2	Michael Schumacher	Ferrari	1	1:32.989	+0.058	4 m	+0.058	14
3	Rubens Barrichello	Ferrari	2	1:33.350	+0.419	26 m	+0.361	15
4	Juan Pablo Montoya	Williams	3	1:33.405	+0.474	30 m	+0.055	13
5	Nick Heidfeld	Sauber	9	1:33.749	+0.818	51 m	+0.344	19
6	Cristiano da Matta	Toyota	21	1:33.963	+1.032	64 m	+0.214	19
7	Justin Wilson	Jaguar Racing	15	1:34.119	+1.188	74 m	+0.156	17
8	Jenson Button	British American Racing	17	1:34.171	+1.240	77 m	+0.052	18
9	David Coulthard	McLaren	5	1:34.309	+1.378	86 m	+0.138	15
10	Jarno Trulli	Renault	7	1:34.349	+1.418	89 m	+0.040	13
11	Fernando Alonso	Renault	8	1:34.398	+1.467	92 m	+0.049	15
12	Kimi Raikkonen	McLaren	6	1:34.523	+1.592	99 m	+0.125	7
13	Olivier Panis	Toyota	20	1:34.541	+1.610	101 m	+0.018	14
14	Takuma Sato	British American Racing	16	1:34.554	+1.623	101 m	+0.013	8
15	Mark Webber	Jaguar Racing	14	1:34.599	+1.668	104 m	+0.045	20
16	Heinz-Harald Frentzen	Sauber	10	1:34.718	+1.787	112 m	+0.119	13
17	Ralph Firman	Jordan	12	1:36.368	+3.437	215 m	+1.650	13
18	Giancarlo Fisichella	Jordan	11	1:36.705	+3.774	236 m	+0.337	10
19	Jos Verstappen	Minardi	19	1:36.928	+3.997	250 m	+0.223	13
20	Nicolas Kiesa	Minardi	18	1:38.075	+5.144	321 m	+1.147	14

Each driver’s best lap of the session and the laps they ran: a classification, not lap timing.

How it is derived: distance

Distance at the session-best lap’s average speed, on the layout raced that year.

Practice 3

Practice 3
Pos	Driver	Constructor	No.	Best lap	Gap	≈ Distance	Interval	Laps
1	Ralf Schumacher	Williams	4	1:31.149	—	0 m	—	10
2	Juan Pablo Montoya	Williams	3	1:31.422	+0.273	17 m	+0.273	15
3	Michael Schumacher	Ferrari	1	1:31.705	+0.556	35 m	+0.283	12
4	Jarno Trulli	Renault	7	1:32.343	+1.194	76 m	+0.638	19
5	Rubens Barrichello	Ferrari	2	1:32.796	+1.647	105 m	+0.453	11
6	Kimi Raikkonen	McLaren	6	1:32.930	+1.781	113 m	+0.134	7
7	Olivier Panis	Toyota	20	1:33.082	+1.933	123 m	+0.152	16
8	Fernando Alonso	Renault	8	1:33.107	+1.958	125 m	+0.025	15
9	Cristiano da Matta	Toyota	21	1:33.133	+1.984	126 m	+0.026	17
10	Jenson Button	British American Racing	17	1:33.411	+2.262	144 m	+0.278	22
11	Takuma Sato	British American Racing	16	1:33.662	+2.513	160 m	+0.251	10
12	Heinz-Harald Frentzen	Sauber	10	1:33.694	+2.545	162 m	+0.032	16
13	Mark Webber	Jaguar Racing	14	1:33.807	+2.658	169 m	+0.113	15
14	Justin Wilson	Jaguar Racing	15	1:33.952	+2.803	179 m	+0.145	18
15	Nick Heidfeld	Sauber	9	1:34.558	+3.409	217 m	+0.606	19
16	Giancarlo Fisichella	Jordan	11	1:35.476	+4.327	276 m	+0.918	15
17	Ralph Firman	Jordan	12	1:35.620	+4.471	285 m	+0.144	15
18	Jos Verstappen	Minardi	19	1:37.379	+6.230	397 m	+1.759	6
19	Nicolas Kiesa	Minardi	18	1:37.884	+6.735	429 m	+0.505	18

Each driver’s best lap of the session and the laps they ran: a classification, not lap timing.

How it is derived: distance

Distance at the session-best lap’s average speed, on the layout raced that year.

Warm-up

Warm-up
Pos	Driver	Constructor	No.	Best lap	Gap	≈ Distance	Interval	Laps
1	Juan Pablo Montoya	Williams	3	1:33.211	—	0 m	—	5
2	Cristiano da Matta	Toyota	21	1:33.481	+0.270	17 m	+0.270	5
3	Rubens Barrichello	Ferrari	2	1:33.963	+0.752	47 m	+0.482	7
4	Fernando Alonso	Renault	8	1:33.972	+0.761	47 m	+0.009	4
5	Takuma Sato	British American Racing	16	1:34.138	+0.927	58 m	+0.166	6
6	Mark Webber	Jaguar Racing	14	1:34.504	+1.293	81 m	+0.366	5
7	Ralf Schumacher	Williams	4	1:34.750	+1.539	96 m	+0.246	5
8	Jenson Button	British American Racing	17	1:34.757	+1.546	96 m	+0.007	6
9	David Coulthard	McLaren	5	1:34.790	+1.579	98 m	+0.033	6
10	Giancarlo Fisichella	Jordan	11	1:34.869	+1.658	103 m	+0.079	5
11	Nick Heidfeld	Sauber	9	1:35.450	+2.239	139 m	+0.581	4
12	Justin Wilson	Jaguar Racing	15	1:35.778	+2.567	160 m	+0.328	6
13	Jos Verstappen	Minardi	19	1:35.853	+2.642	165 m	+0.075	5
14	Ralph Firman	Jordan	12	1:36.515	+3.304	206 m	+0.662	4
15	Nicolas Kiesa	Minardi	18	1:38.929	+5.718	356 m	+2.414	4
16	Heinz-Harald Frentzen	Sauber	10	1:47.062	+13.851	863 m	+8.133	5
17	Olivier Panis	Toyota	20	—	—	—	—	4
18	Jarno Trulli	Renault	7	—	—	—	—	3
19	Michael Schumacher	Ferrari	1	—	—	—	—	6
20	Kimi Raikkonen	McLaren	6	—	—	—	—	2

Each driver’s best lap of the session and the laps they ran: a classification, not lap timing.

How it is derived: distance

Distance at the session-best lap’s average speed, on the layout raced that year.

The cars in this race

The photograph each car's Wikipedia article leads with, from Wikimedia Commons: taken wherever and whenever that was, not necessarily at this race.

A photograph marked unchecked has a file name that does not name the car it is shown for. Most are still the right car, filed under the driver rather than the machine — but nobody has confirmed these one by one.

2 more photographs

Where this comes from

Round: 16 of 2003
Grand Prix: Japanese Grand Prix
Dates: 12 Oct 2003
Layout raced: —
Format: Standard weekend
Constructor: Ferrari
Entrant: Ferrari
Confidence: reference

No layout is recorded for this round: this register has no layout timeline for the circuit, and a blank here is better than a guess.