The 2003 Formula 1 season had brought new rule changes in order to break the seemingly irrepressible dominant streak of Ferrari and Michael Schumacher. A ban on bi-directional telemetry and a new points structure, as well as competitive cars produced by McLaren and Williams, the season proved to be the most exciting of the new century. McLaren’s Kimi Raikkonen and Williams’s Juan Pablo Montoya took the fight to Schumacher all season, but as they entered Japan for the final round, it would be between the Finn Raikkonen, only in his third season of Formula 1, and Schumacher, aiming to break Juan Manuel Fangio’s record of five World Championships. Going into the race weekend of the 2003 Japanese Grand Prix, Schumacher led by nine points over Raikkonen, meaning only a win and an unusually low finish for Schumacher would give the Finn the title.
Qualifying was a spectacle in itself, virtually guaranteeing entertainment in the race, with Raikkonen only 8th and Schumacher a lowly 14th, leaving their respective team-mates, Rubens Barrichello (pole position) and David Coulthard (7th), with the tasks of helping their team-mates in the race. The championship still looked unlikely for Raikkonen, but with Schumacher in the middle of the pack and more likely to encounter danger, the race, and the championship, was more wide open than expected.
At the start, everyone made it through the often chaotic turn one safely. By the end of the lap, Williams’s Juan Pablo Montoya, whose title hopes ended in the previous race in America, muscled his way past Barrichello and into the lead. Schumacher was carving his way through the field, but after a risky attempt to pass Takuma Sato – in his first race for BAR after the termination of Jacques Villeneuve’s contract – he lost his front wing and duly pitted for a new one, undoing all the work he had done. At the front, Montoya’s lead did not last, retiring on lap nine with hydraulic failure. Raikkonen made steady progress and looked comfortable, despite being stuck behind the high-qualifying Toyota of Cristiano Da Matta in his first stint of the race.
At the front, it seemed that it was set-up to be a race between Barrichello and Renault’s Fernando Alonso, before engine failure ended the Spaniard’s race on lap 17. Raikkonen was put on a two-stop strategy in an attempt to gain advantage over Barrichello, but the plan didn’t work, with the Finn unable to keep up with the pace of the Brazilian, who then began to streak ahead of the rest of the pack into a comfortable lead.
Schumacher, now making his way through the field for a second time, found himself racing for position with the Williams of his brother Ralf, who also endured a chaotic and incident-filled race. After getting ahead of his younger brother in the pit-stops, Ralf attempted a pass at turn one a lap later, with big brother closing the door on him. The battle was short-lived, as Ralf spun at the final corner for the second time in the race, narrowly avoiding Michael as they battled for position with Da Matta’s Toyota. With Barrichello maintaining a comfortable cushion over the McLarens of Raikkonen and Coulthard, Schumacher sensibly abandoned hopes of overtaking Da Matta for 7th place. Barrichello took his third win of the season, once again proving his speed and intelligence as a driver, yet simultaneously, and not for the first time, doing a stellar job as Ferrari’s number two driver and acting as a perfect foil for Schumacher, who eventually took 8th place, ensuring his place in the record books as the most successful Formula 1 driver of all-time. He finished 2 points ahead of Raikkonen in the standings, with Barrichello’s win, coupled with Montoya’s retirement and Ralf Schumacher’s clumsy performance, ensuring Ferrari also took the Constructor’s Championship ahead of Williams by fourteen points.
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