Bourdais remained on the circuit for one extra lap because he had conserved fuel and had a faster pit stop than his teammate, who was delayed by the slower car of Rodolfo Lavín, to take the lead.

Michel Jourdain Jr. maintained third position with fellow Mexican Adrián Fernández remaining in fourth place and Patrick Carpentier fifth.

The 2003 London Champ Car Trophy was the start of a two-week European stretch for the Championship Auto Racing Teams (CART) series; the German 500 was held at EuroSpeedway Lausitz in Klettwitz, Germany one week later.

[1] It was the fourth round of the 2003 CART season and was held at the Brands Hatch circuit in West Kingsdown, Kent on 5 May 2003.

[5] The series held two previous events in the United Kingdom at the Rockingham Motor Speedway in Corby, which was dropped from the season schedule in November 2002 because of poor attendance and inclement weather.

[1] Brands Hatch's return was publicly announced at the Autosport International Show in Birmingham on 9 January 2003, and it was held on the Indy configuration.

CART president and CEO Chris Pook cited the track's proximity from London and the history of the Brands Hatch circuit as the primary reasons of hosting the race there.

[5] He also stated that the Brands Hatch Grand Prix configuration could not be used because of the high cost of upgrading it to CART standards.

[7] Brands Hatch and CART invested $2 million in enhancing the track's safety standards; 2 miles (3.2 kilometres) of fencing was erected around each side of the Indy layout, around 38,000 tyres were used to construct barriers and the majority of the guard-railing alongside the circuit was reconstructed.

[8] Tim Mayer, CART's international and development liaison officer, admitted more efforts were needed to upgrade the track to obtain an FIA Grade 2 licence for a potential future event on the Grand Prix layout and noted that its history had to be regarded when altering it for increased space: "We have garages here that are twenty-six feet long and we have cars that are sixteen feet long and each team brings two cars.

He had won the previous three races of the season, and aimed to secure his fourth consecutive victory, but said he was not thinking about his recent success.

Lavin lost control under braking for Druids hairpin and was beached in the turn's gravel trap causing the session's first stoppage; he was imposed an eight-minute penalty.

Yoong locked his brakes and struck the left-hand side tyre barrier at Druids hairpin, necessitating a second red flag.

The weather was hot and sunny with a slight breeze, and it was expected that lap times would improve,[26] since teams were more knowledgeable of the track conditions and more rubber had been laid on the racing line.

[27] Bourdais looked set to challenge Tracy, but he ran wide leaving Paddock Hill bend on his last qualifying lap and put the left-hand side of his car into the gravel, creating enough decompression to pull his hand off his steering wheel.

[27][31] Lavín was slowest overall and was on a faster lap when he made a minor driving error heading towards Clark Curve and lost around three-tenths of a second.

Camathias caused the session's sole stoppage by going straight into a gravel trap at Druids hairpin after locking his brakes.

Competitive racing began at the start of lap two, and Tracy maintained his pole position advantage heading into the first corner.

Farther back, Fernández made contact with Tagliani and drifted wide to the left side of the track but managed to continue.

Vasser drove into the pit lane and got out of his car to retire with left-front suspension damage caused by his front tyre turning in.

[34][36] Tracy began to pull away from the rest of the field, extending his lead to 2.088 seconds over Bourdais by the start of the eleventh lap.

[38] Yoong was behind Moreno in 11th, and in front of Jourdain in 12th, when he locked his brakes on the run to Druids corner and drifted wide onto the dirty side of the track.

[34][38] During the caution, Manning and Tagliani, made pit stops for fuel because they wanted to push harder than the rest of the field.

[34] Unhindered in the final 33 laps, Bourdais maintained his lead while scything his way through slower traffic on the tight confines of the track to claim his first CART victory.

"[38] Domínguez said that his team worked hard to produce his third-place result and spoke of his feeling that his performance at Brands Hatch was better than his victory at the 2002 Honda Indy 300.

He revealed that he acquainted himself with the optimum line around the circuit's by trailing Manning during Saturday's free practice sessions, "He's got lots of little tricks.

Derick Allsop of The Independent argued that the Brands Hatch Indy Circuit was too restrictive for Champ Cars with overtaking "virtually impossible", "A crowd of nearly 40,000 witnessed Cart's latest attempt to find a home in this country and could be forgiven for wondering why the series still claims to represent racing at its most thrilling.

For two hours they watched the cars circulating the 1.2-mile Indy track, nestling in the natural amphitheatre here, and waited in vain for the much-vaunted spectacle to materialise.

"[45] The Guardian's Richard Polkey wrote the spectators were "entitled to feel let down" after fuel economy created a processional event, "It was hardly the way to help spread the gospel of Cart – Championship Auto Racing Teams – around the globe, which was the reason they were here – and at Rockingham in the past two years".

[37] The correspondent for The Times said, "It was never the pulsating spectacle the pre-race propaganda had promised", and argued that utilising the Grand Prix layout would provide better racing to sustain public interest.