Racing | Formula 1 | 2003 Brazilian Grand Prix — Fisichella Wins After the Classification Is Revised

On 6 April 2003, the Brazilian Grand Prix at Autódromo José Carlos Pace ended with two different winners in less than a week because the first countback used the wrong lap.

The race was the third round of the 2003 Formula One World Championship and ran in heavy rain on Interlagos’s 4.309 km, 15-turn, counter-clockwise Grand Prix configuration, the layout introduced in 1999.

Repeated safety-car periods preceded a red flag after crashes involving Mark Webber and Fernando Alonso left debris on the start-finish approach, and the stoppage meant the finishing order had to be counted back under the sporting regulations rather than taken from the cars’ positions at the red flag.

Officials initially treated the stoppage as occurring during lap 55, so the first declared classification reverted to the end of lap 53 and named McLaren’s Kimi Räikkönen the winner ahead of Jordan’s Giancarlo Fisichella.

Timing evidence then established that Fisichella had already begun lap 56 when the race was stopped, requiring the result to be taken from the end of lap 54, when he was leading.

The stewards reconvened on 11 April and revised the result, making Fisichella the official winner; Formula 1’s final classification records him completing 54 laps in 1:31:17.748, 0.945 seconds ahead of Räikkönen, with Alonso third at 6.348 seconds.

The decision gave Fisichella his first Formula One victory and became Jordan Grand Prix’s final win, while the physical finish remained anchored to the Interlagos lap on which the countback ultimately rested.

Sources: Formula 1, “Grande Prêmio do Brasil 2003 – Race Result,” https://www.formula1.com/en/results/2003/races/739/brazil/race-result; Grandprix.com, “Brazilian GP, 2003,” https://www.grandprix.com/races/brazilian-gp-2003.html; Motor Sport, “2003 Brazilian Grand Prix,” https://www.motorsportmagazine.com/database/races/2003-brazilian-grand-prix/; Autoweek, “Fisichella named Brazilian GP winner, McLaren gracious in defeat,” https://www.autoweek.com/news/a2096966/fisichella-named-brazilian-gp-winner-mclaren-gracious-defeat/.

Photo: Will Pittenger, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Aut%C3%B3dromo_Jos%C3%A9_Carlos_Pace_(AKA_Interlagos)_track_map.svg; rasterized to JPEG on a white background without changing the diagram’s content.