[1][2] It was the third United States Grand Prix hosted at Indianapolis since it was reinstated on the Formula One World Championship calendar in 2000 following a nine-year absence.

[23] The IMS asphalt pavement was diamond grounded to smooth out several bumps and improve grip for racing vehicles to prevent bottoming out.

[26] Sauber team principal Peter Sauber signed Frentzen to replace Massa for the Grand Prix so that Massa could avoid serving a ten-place grid penalty from his final starting position imposed by the stewards for an avoidable accident with Jaguar's Pedro de la Rosa at the preceding Italian Grand Prix; the penalty was imposed on the driver, not the team.

[32] Heavy rain fell on the IMS overnight,[33] but it quickly subsided and ceased an hour before the first practice session began[34] When the tyre rubber was removed from the circuit, it became more abrasive than expected.

[38] Barrichello lost control of his Ferrari on the grass at the entry of the banked turn 13 owing to a loss of pressure in the left rear tyre after 29 minutes.

[24][39] He went up, causing moderate damage to his car's left side striking a concrete wall sideways around 100 ft (30 m) way from the SAFER barrier.

[40] Ralf Schumacher lost control of his Williams car with ten minutes remaining and spun into the turn eight outside tyre wall, seeing the rear wing partly dislodged.

The two McLarens of Coulthard and Räikkönen, BAR's Jacques Villeneuve, Frentzen, Fisichella, Renault's Jarno Trulli, Heidfeld and Ralf Schumacher made up positions three to ten.

[44] Six minutes into the session, Sato locked the wheels on the wet grass and spun off the track, colliding into the turn eight tyre barrier.

[47] Sato's engine failed while driving at low speed after one minute of the session, and he pulled off to the side of the track with smoke billowing from the back of his car, which later caught fire.

[25] The fog that had descended on IMS had dissipated significantly before the sun broke through as teams completed their qualifying preparations during the final practice session.

[25] His teammate Barrichello, Irvine, Ralf Schumacher, Coulthard, Heidfeld, Montoya, Räikkönen, Fisichella and Frentzen rounded out the top ten.

[49] Räikkönen spun his McLaren, breaking its front suspension hitting the tyre barrier between turns nine and ten just before practice ended.

[32] Qualifying was held in sunny and warm weather, and track conditions improved, resulting in a 20-minute wait for participants to drive on a good circuit.

[25] He aborted his first quick lap after locking his tyres and going onto grass,[50] and believed he could have gone faster had he not had to slow for yellow flags for Alex Yoong's abandoned Minardi car.

[51] Schumacher was joined on the front row by teammate Barrichello, who was nearly 0.3 seconds slower after struggling to get his Ferrari properly balanced and making a mistake at turn one on his first run.

[51][54] Yoong damaged his car's left side hitting the turn eight barrier after driving onto wet grass but returned to the circuit.

[60] Coulthard's race vehicle experienced a slight fuel leak, so he swapped to the spare McLaren setup for teammate Räikkönen during warm-up, and the mechanics altered the car to suit him.

[66] Ralf's Schumacher rear wing was removed in the crash, requiring him to drive slowly and make an unplanned pit stop for mechanics to replace it.

[62][63][64] Yoong exited the course and entered the turn one run-off area, his engine blowing white smoke,[57][66] due to an oil pump failure when he was in front of Barrichello on lap 49.

[57][62] Räikkönen became the Grand Prix's final retirement on the following lap when he abandoned his McLaren at the side of the middle of the back straight, smoke billowing from its rear.

[57][66][70]Michael Schumacher opened up a 3.4 second lead over his teammate Barrichello by the 64th lap,[64] as Coulthard began steadily closing up to both drivers who had both reduced their pace.

[64][73] Michael Schumacher slowed in the final two corners to allow Barrichello to close in further,[57] and drove left up the banking turn 13 to give his teammate room and let him run alongside him to the finish line.

[72][74] Barrichello, who was initially hesitant about being alongside his teammate,[74] passed Michael Schumacher and won by 0.011 seconds,[67] his fourth win of the season and the fifth of his career.

[74][75] The 0.011-second margin of victory was the second-closest in Formula One history after Peter Gethin won the 1971 Italian Grand Prix by 0.01 seconds over Ronnie Peterson.

Heidfeld (who had more frontal understeer before his second pit stop making his car difficult to drive) and Irvine completed the top ten.

[69][70] Frentzen finished 13th owing to oversteer, which overheated his rear tyres, and his helmet, which blocked part of the engine's air inlet, limiting its power slightly due to his height.

"[78] Coulthard explained that being stuck behind slower cars was his attempt to not lose too much time and stay in third place, and he expressed astonishment at his quick start despite the heavy fuel load.

[78] It was widely assumed that Michael Schumacher's slowing on the penultimate lap was his way of repaying Barrichello for being ordered to allow him pass and win the Austrian Grand Prix earlier in the season, a hypothesis Ferrari rejected.

[86] IMS president Tony George hoped that the finish would increase interest in Formula One in the United States as it got people talking about the Grand Prix.