The bottom 6 teams in the 2003 Constructors' Championship were entitled to run a third car in free practice on Friday.

During the warm-up lap of the race, a man calling himself Jimmy Jump ran through the starting grid, only to be apprehended soon by the security.

While he claimed to have many fans (due to his other performances at football matches), he was criticized for risking the lives of the drivers, even though the cars were still travelling at low speed at this point.

Michael Schumacher dominated a largely uneventful race leading home his team-mate Rubens Barrichello.

The most notable result was that of the McLaren team, with their drivers Kimi Räikkönen and David Coulthard finishing a lap down and outside of the points scoring positions, a far cry from their usual championship-contending performance.