Schumacher wins championship!

By role
October 12 2003

Michael Schumcher won the Driver's Championship after finishing 8th on a race won by the Ferrari of Rubens Barrichello. It was a race full of incidents dominated on the initial stages by Juan Pablo Montoya before he broke on lap 8.

From there on it was a Barrichello race who had to fight for the lead on the initial laps with the Renault of Fernando Alonso.

Alonso did a great start and was able to overtake both Panis and Da Matta. Both Toyota drivers were running slower and were affecting the speed of David Coulthard and Kimi Raikkonen.

However, Alonso's engine was going to say enough on lap 19 for the second race in a row. The Spaniard that was just behind Barrichello was understandably frustrated as one podium had just flied away.

His teammate Jarno Trulli fought a hard race to finish 5th.

Once Alonso was gone Rubens had an easy race as Raikkonen, who finished 2nd, never looked ready to challange for the win. His teammate, David Coulthard, finished 3rd but left the impression to be much faster than his teammate during most of the race.

A tough race for the Champion Michael Schumacher. The German, who started 14 th on the grid, had an incident against Sato on the initial laps and had to fight from behind to finish 8th and collect the 8th place needed to win the Championship.

On the later stages he was lucky to scape an incident with his brother on the final laps.

Ferrari, thanks to the points of Rubens and Michale have also won the Constructor's Championship.