2002–2004 SARS outbreak, Timeline, April 2003
On 8 April, SARS started to plague the Lower Ngau Tau Kok Estate near Amoy Gardens in Kowloon. Hong Kong health officials warned that SARS had spread so far domestically and abroad that it was here to stay. Nevertheless, WHO officials remained cautiously optimistic that the disease could still be contained.


2002–2004 SARS outbreak, Timeline, April 2003
On 9 April, James Earl Salisbury died of SARS at a hospital in Hong Kong. An American Mormon and a teacher at Shenzhen Polytechnic, he had been sick for approximately one month before his death, but he was originally diagnosed with pneumonia. His son Michael "Mickey" Salisbury was with him in China and also contracted the disease, but he survived it. Salisbury's death led to more open admissions by the Chinese government about the spread of SARS.


2002–2004 SARS outbreak, Timeline, April 2003
On 10 April, Jim Hughes, the head of infectious disease at the CDC, confirming the warnings of Hong Kong health officials, claimed that he believed that SARS could no longer be eradicated in the Far East. However, he remained hopeful that it could be prevented from spreading widely in North America. On 11 April, the World Health Organization issued a global health alert for SARS as it became clear the disease was being spread by global air travel.


2002–2004 SARS outbreak, Timeline, April 2003
On 12 April, Marco Marra, director of the Michael Smith Genome Sciences Centre, which is part of the British Columbia Cancer Agency, announced that scientists at his centre had broken the genetic code of the virus suspected of causing the disease. In Toronto, three more people died of SARS, bringing the Canadian death toll to 13. On 16 April, the WHO issued a press release stating that the coronavirus identified by a number of laboratories was the official cause of SARS. The virus was officially named the SARS virus.


2002–2004 SARS outbreak, Timeline, April 2003
On 17 April, the first confirmed case of SARS from India was reported. On 19 April, Premier of the People's Republic of China Wen Jiabao announced that there would be severe consequences for local officials who did not report SARS cases in a timely and accurate manner, signaling a major change in policy. SARS had also been gaining prominence in the mainland Chinese media; by late April, it had jumped from virtual invisibility onto the front page, with daily reports from all provinces on new cases and measures.


2002–2004 SARS outbreak, Timeline, April 2003
On 20 April, Beijing's mayor Meng Xuenong and the health minister of the PRC Zhang Wenkang were replaced respectively by Wang Qishan from Hainan and the former deputy health minister Gao Qiang. They were the first two high-rank officials in the PRC to be dismissed because of the fallout of the epidemic. In the news conference chaired by Gao Qiang several hours earlier, the PRC admitted that in Beijing there were more than 300 cases, as opposed to the previous figure of only 37. The figure had increased to 407 the following day. Chinese officials also admitted to major underreporting of cases, which were attributed to bureaucratic ineptitude.


2002–2004 SARS outbreak, Timeline, April 2003
On 22 April, schools in Hong Kong started to reopen in stages. On 23 April, Beijing announced that all primary and secondary schools would be closed for two weeks. A few days before, some colleges in Peking University had been closed because some students had been infected. The WHO issued travel advisories against Beijing, Toronto, and Shanxi.


2002–2004 SARS outbreak, Timeline, April 2003
After several cases of SARS were diagnosed in Taiwan throughout the month of April, including a cluster at Taipei Municipal Hospital's Hoping branch, the Taipei City Government closed that hospital and quarantined its 930 staff and 240 patients for two weeks. The decision to lock down the medical facility was protested by hospital staff.


2002–2004 SARS outbreak, Timeline, April 2003
On 24 April, the Hong Kong Government announced an HK$11.8 billion relief package designed to assist Hong Kong's battered tourism, entertainment, retail, and catering sectors, consisting of a waiver of tourism- and transport-related license fees, and HK$1 billion allocated for tourism promotion overseas. The package also includes a salaries tax rebate and reduced rates.


2002–2004 SARS outbreak, Timeline, April 2003
On 26 April, Wu Yi was named Zhang Wenkang's replacement as PRC health minister. On 26–27 April, Chinese authorities locked down Beijing, closing down theatres, discos, and other entertainment venues in Beijing as the death toll in Beijing continued to rise, threatening to become the worst-hit area of the country, eclipsing the province of Guangdong. People who may have been exposed were ordered to stay home. Authorities were bolstered by the fact that the infection rate seemed to have declined, with Guangdong only exporting three new infections over the weekend. The economic impact was becoming dramatic as shops, restaurants, markets, bars, universities, schools, and many other businesses had closed, while some government ministries and large state banks were working with minimal staff levels.


2002–2004 SARS outbreak, Timeline, April 2003
On 28 April, WHO declared the outbreak in Vietnam to be over as no new cases were reported for 20 days. On 29 April, leaders of member countries of ASEAN and the PRC premier held an emergency summit in Bangkok, Thailand to address the outbreak. Among the decisions made were the setting-up of a ministerial-level task force and uniform pre-departure health screening in airports.


2002–2004 SARS outbreak, Timeline, April 2003
On 30 April, the World Health Organization lifted the SARS travel warning for Toronto. The decision was made because "it is satisfied with local measures to stop the spread of SARS". Canadian officials said they would step up screenings at airports.


2002–2004 SARS outbreak, Timeline, May 2003
On 3 May, the 2003 FIFA Women's World Cup was abruptly moved to the United States due to the outbreak. China maintained its automatic qualification and later hosted the Women's World Cup four years later. On 4 May, the newly infected number of people in Hong Kong dropped to single digits. On 19 May, the WHO Annual Meeting was held in Geneva. Hong Kong pushed for the Tourism Warning to be lifted.


2002–2004 SARS outbreak, Timeline, May 2003
On 20 May, the WHO refused to lift the Tourism Warning for Hong Kong and Guangdong, but did so three days later after a recount of the number of SARS patients. On 24 May, the number of newly infected patients reached zero for in Hong Kong, the first time since the outbreak in the territory in March.


2002–2004 SARS outbreak, Timeline, May 2003
On 24 May, a new cluster of about 20 suspected patients was reported in Toronto. By 29 May, more than 7,000 people were instructed to quarantine themselves in Canada by authorities seeking to control the potential spread of the SARS outbreak.


2002–2004 SARS outbreak, Timeline, May 2003
In Taiwan, administrators and staff of Taipei Municipal Hospital's Hoping branch faced disciplinary action from the Taipei City Government. The Control Yuan also launched an investigation into the hospital's closure. Taipei City Bureau of Health director Chiu Shu-ti resigned from Ma Ying-jeou's mayoral administration on 25 May. On 27 May, the Taichung City Government, led by mayor Jason Hu, established a command center in central Taiwan to handle SARS. The Department of Health worked with several hospitals in Taiwan to expand medical facilities and treatment for SARS patients.


2002–2004 SARS outbreak, Timeline, May 2003
On 31 May, Singapore was removed from WHO's list of 'Infected Areas'.


2002–2004 SARS outbreak, Timeline, June 2003
On 10 June, the government of Ontario created the SARS Commission inquiry in order to "investigate the recent introduction and spread of SARS" in the province.


2002–2004 SARS outbreak, Timeline, June 2003
On 23 June, Hong Kong was removed from WHO's list of 'Affected Areas', while Toronto, Beijing, and Taiwan remained. On 27 June, the World Health Organization stated that the world population should be SARS-free within the next two to three weeks, but warned the disease could emerge in China next winter.


2002–2004 SARS outbreak, Timeline, July 2003
On July 2, Canada was removed from the WHO's list of 'Infected Areas'.


2002–2004 SARS outbreak, Timeline, July 2003
On 5 July, WHO declared the SARS outbreak contained and removed Taiwan from the list of affected areas. Taiwan's removal from the list signified the end of the outbreak.


2002–2004 SARS outbreak, Timeline, September 2003
On 8 September, Singapore announced that a post-doctoral worker in a SARS research lab in the National University of Singapore had contracted the disease while working on the West Nile virus but recovered shortly thereafter. It was suspected that the two viruses mixed while he was doing his research.


2002–2004 SARS outbreak, Timeline, December 2003
On 10 December, a researcher in a SARS lab in Taiwan was found infected with SARS after returning from Singapore attending a medical conference; 74 people in Singapore were quarantined but none of them were infected.


2002–2004 SARS outbreak, Timeline, December 2003
On 27 December, China announced the first suspected case of SARS in six months in Guangdong in an individual who was not a SARS researcher.


2002–2004 SARS outbreak, Timeline, January 2004
On 5 January, China confirmed that the case reported in December was a case of wild source SARS. The Philippines announced a possible case in a person just returned from Hong Kong. The patient was later determined to be suffering from pneumonia and not SARS. In China, Asian palm civets were culled in markets (the civets were thought to be a reservoir for the disease).


2002–2004 SARS outbreak, Timeline, January 2004
On 10 January, a restaurant worker in Guangdong was confirmed as the second wild source SARS since the outbreak was contained. Guangzhou was also the site of the first case in December and was thought to be the origin of the virus in the original outbreak. Three Hong Kong television reporters who visited SARS-related sites in Guangzhou were declared free of the disease. On 17 January, China announced a third case of SARS in Guangzhou. WHO officials urged more testing to bring the three recently announced cases into line with their standards; however, they also announced SARS virus had been detected by a WHO team in civet cages at the restaurant where the second case worked and in civet cages in the market.


2002–2004 SARS outbreak, Timeline, January 2004
On 31 January, China announced the fourth case of SARS as a 40-year-old doctor from the southern city of Guangzhou, and gave his family name as Liu. He was discharged when the announcement was made.


2002–2004 SARS outbreak, Timeline, April 2004
SARS broke out again in Beijing and in Anhui Province. On 22 April, China announced that a 53-year-old woman had died on 19 April, its first SARS death since June. One person died and nine were infected in the outbreak which was first reported on 22 April. The first 2 infected cases involved a postgraduate student and a researcher at the National Institute for Viral Disease Control and Prevention (abbrev. : Institute of Virology) of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention; an additional 7 cases were diagnosed, which were linked with close personal contact with the student, the lab or with a nurse who treated the student.


2002–2004 SARS outbreak, Timeline, May 2004
Two additional confirmed cases of SARS and three additional suspected cases were reported in Beijing on 1 May, all related to a single research lab, the Diarrhea Virus Laboratory in the CDC's National Institute of Virology in Beijing. "The cases had been linked to experiments using live and inactive SARS coronavirus in the CDC's virology and diarrhea institutes where interdisciplinary research on the SARS virus was conducted." The total number of cases was six, with four in Beijing and two in Anhui.


2002–2004 SARS outbreak, Timeline, May 2004
On 2 May, China announced the three suspected cases as genuine cases of SARS, bringing the total cases in a recent outbreak to nine. 189 people were released from quarantine. On 18 May, after no new infections had been reported in a three-week period, WHO announced China as free of further cases of SARS, but stated that "biosafety concerns remain".


2002–2004 SARS outbreak, Subsequent status
In May 2005, Jim Yardley of the New York Times wrote:


2002–2004 SARS outbreak, Subsequent status
"Not a single case of the severe acute respiratory syndrome has been reported this year [2005] or in late 2004. It is the first winter without a case since the initial outbreak in late 2002. In addition, the epidemic strain of SARS that caused at least 774 deaths worldwide by June 2003 has not been seen outside of a laboratory since then."


2002–2004 SARS outbreak among healthcare workers
The rapid spread of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) in healthcare workers (HCW)—most notably in Toronto hospitals—during the global outbreak of SARS in 2002–2003 contributed to dozens of identified cases, some of them fatal. Researchers have found several key reasons for this development, such as the high-risk performances of medical operations on patients with SARS, inadequate use of protective equipment, psychological effects on the workers in response to the stress of dealing with the outbreak, and lack of information and training on treating SARS. Lessons learned from this outbreak among healthcare workers have contributed to newly developed treatment and prevention efforts and new recommendations from groups such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).


2002–2004 SARS outbreak among healthcare workers, Background
SARS spread around the world from the Guangdong Province of China, to multiple locations, like Hong Kong and then Toronto, Canada from 2002–2003. The spread of SARS originated from a doctor residing in a hotel in Hong Kong to other tourists staying in the same hotel, who then travelled back home to locations like Toronto (without knowing that they had the disease). The growing number of cases in Toronto gave HCWs a significant challenge, as they were tasked with stopping the spread of the disease in their city. Unfortunately, this unprepared-for challenge led several hospitals in the city and in the surrounding Ontario region to see dozens of cases of SARS arise not only in typical patients but also in HCWs themselves.


2002–2004 SARS outbreak among healthcare workers, Background
Noticing this development, on March 28, 2003, the POC (Provincial Operating Centre) in Ontario established a set of SARS-specific recommendations and suggestions for all hospitals in Toronto in order to guide them on how to best avoid the transmission of SARS among HCWs. They hoped that these initiatives would protect HCWs from the disease, allowing them to continue treating other SARS-infected patients without putting themselves at risk.


2002–2004 SARS outbreak among healthcare workers, Background
A study published in 2006, however, suggests that these directives were not fully practiced and/or enforced, causing many HCWs to still get the disease. The study followed 17 HCWs in Toronto hospitals who had developed the disease and interviewed 15 of them about their habits and practices during the time of the outbreak. Specifically, the study involved asking the HCWs questions regarding the amount of training they had received on dealing with SARS cases in a cautionary way, how often they used protective equipment, etc. In the end, results showed that the practices of these HCWs did not fully meet the recommendations set forth by the POC, providing greater evidence that these poor practices (described below) led to the development of the disease in HCWs more than anything else.


2002–2004 SARS outbreak among healthcare workers, Causes of transmission, High-risk performance
Many HCWs became more susceptible to contracting the disease due to their operations and high-risk interactions with SARS patients. Many of these interactions, such as caring for a patient directly or communicating with the patient, create high-risk scenarios in which the HCWs have many ways of becoming infected. There are three main categories of High-Risk Performance: direct contact by patient, indirect contact by patient, and high-risk events.


2002–2004 SARS outbreak among healthcare workers, Causes of transmission, High-risk performance, Direct contact by patient
Direct contact and resulting transmission of the disease "occurs when there is physical contact between an infected person and a susceptible person". This direct contact can be various types of contact involving blood or bodily fluids, but some SARS-specific examples include when a patient receives supplemental oxygen or mechanical ventilation with the aid of HCWs. These require the direct contact of a patient with a HCW, making it a viable method of SARS transmission. As direct contact is the most common form of high-risk performance, all seventeen HCWs participating in the study encountered some sort of direct contact with a patient in the 10 days before getting the disease.


2002–2004 SARS outbreak among healthcare workers, Causes of transmission, High-risk performance, High-risk procedures
High-risk procedures include intentional actions that are taken by the HCW in order to help a patient. They are considered high-risk because the chances of a disease being transmitted during these procedures are far greater than typical direct or indirect contact with a patient. While there are myriad high-risk procedures, those that are SARS-specific include intubation, manual ventilation, nebulizer therapy, and several others. As was highlighted in the study, fourteen of the seventeen HCWs taking part in the study were involved in some high-risk procedure in the 10 days before getting the disease.


2002–2004 SARS outbreak among healthcare workers, Causes of transmission, High-risk performance, Indirect contact by patient
While direct contact involves the physical contact of two people, indirect contact does not. Instead, indirect contact "occurs when there is no direct human-to-human contact," and it can involve contact of a human with a contaminated surface,  which are known as fomites. The most plausible cases of transmission through indirect contact are when an HCW or healthy person touches a surface contaminated with droplets from an infected patient's sneeze or cough or inhales those droplets themselves.


2002–2004 SARS outbreak among healthcare workers, Causes of transmission, High-risk performance, Indirect contact by patient
At the same time, if the droplets come in contact with the healthy person's mouth, eye, or nose, the healthy person also risks becoming ill.   Other types of high-risk events include diarrhea and vomiting, which can very easily contaminate a HCW with bacteria or fluid that contains the SARS disease through indirect contact. Regarding coming into contact with contaminated surfaces or fomites, many HCWs had habits of wearing jewelry, eating lunch on site or in designated cafeterias, wearing glasses, using makeup, etc., which are all potential new fomites that could foster the transmission of disease. Just like with direct contact, all seventeen HCWs participating in the study encountered some type of high-risk event in the 10 days before getting the disease.


2002–2004 SARS outbreak among healthcare workers, Causes of transmission, Equipment inadequacy
One large guideline for HCWs in Toronto hospitals was the use of sufficient and protective equipment to avoid transmission of the disease. The most widely suggested and used pieces of equipment were masks, gowns, gloves, and eye protection. While these pieces of equipment were used by most HCWs, they were not always used—if at all—by everyone, allowing SARS transmission to take place more easily.


2002–2004 SARS outbreak among healthcare workers, Causes of transmission, Equipment inadequacy, Masks
Surgical masks were suggested to be used by both HCWs and patients. This is because the specifically recommended type of masks do a good job of preventing one's own bacteria and fluid from escaping into the air—keeping both a patient and a HCW's bacteria and fluid to themselves. Less intentionally but also important, these masks discourage patients and HCWs from putting their fingers or hands in contact with the nose and mouth, which could usually allow bacteria to spread from the hand to these areas.


2002–2004 SARS outbreak among healthcare workers, Causes of transmission, Equipment inadequacy, Masks
Contrary to popular belief, some types of masks do little to prevent fluid and bacteria from coming in contact with the wearer of the mask, but they can still help prevent airborne infection. Therefore, it is important that both the patient and the HCW wear the mask. However, the aforementioned study's results indicate that HCWs wore them much more often than the patients themselves; in fact, fourteen of the HCWS always wore their mask, while only 1 of the patients always wore his/her mask.


2002–2004 SARS outbreak among healthcare workers, Causes of transmission, Equipment inadequacy, Gowns
Hospital gowns are another piece of equipment used by HCWs during the outbreak. Used mostly for those who are having trouble changing/moving their lower body, gowns are easy for patients to put on when they are bedridden. They are also helpful for HCWs to attempt to avoid contamination, as the gowns can be removed and disposed of easily after an operation or interaction with a patient. While seemingly less critical than masks, gowns were worn nearly the same amount by HCWs as masks.


2002–2004 SARS outbreak among healthcare workers, Causes of transmission, Equipment inadequacy, Gloves
Medical gloves, like masks and gowns, also serve the purpose of preventing contamination of disease by blocking contact between the hands and the various bacteria, fluid, and fomites that carry the disease. HCWs can again, like gowns, easily dispose of and change gloves in order to help improve and maintain good sanitary conditions. Compared to all of the other pieces of equipment, gloves were worn the most often by HCWs who contracted the disease.


2002–2004 SARS outbreak among healthcare workers, Causes of transmission, Equipment inadequacy, Eye protection
HCWs used and continue to use a variety of eye protection, like personal and safety glasses, goggles, and face shields, but most relied on face shields and goggles when dealing with SARS patients. In general, eye protection is most helpful in blocking any harmful particles (in this case bacteria or fluid from a patient) from entering the eye of a HCW. One distinction between eye protection and the other types of equipment, however, is that eye protection is often reusable.


2002–2004 SARS outbreak among healthcare workers, Causes of transmission, Equipment inadequacy, Eye protection
This characteristic of eye protection therefore makes understanding the methods used to clean the eye protection equipment a factor when assessing the success of using eye protection to prevent disease transmission. These include how often the equipment is cleaned, what is used to clean the equipment, and the location of where the equipment is being cleaned. While nearly all HCWs that contracted the disease reported that they wore some form of eye protection, many of them inadequately washed their eye equipment and did so in a SARS unit.


2002–2004 SARS outbreak among healthcare workers, Causes of transmission, Psychological effects
During outbreaks like the SARS outbreak in 2002–2003, HCWs are put under significantly greater amounts of stress and pressure to help cure patients and relieve them of disease. Because there was no known cure for SARS, the pressure and stress was especially prominent among HCWs. With this challenge came many psychological effects—most notably stress.


2002–2004 SARS outbreak among healthcare workers, Causes of transmission, Psychological effects
Stress was a psychological effect experienced by many HCWs during the outbreak. This stress resulted from the fatigue and pressure of having to work longer hours and shifts in attempt to improve the treatment and the containment of the disease. Meanwhile, many HCWs refrained from returning home in between shifts to avoid the possibility of transmitting the disease to family members or others in the community, which only exacerbated the emotional and physical stress and fatigue that the HCWs experienced. Even more, the occupational stress of the  HCWs only grew by dealing with sick and often dying patients.


2002–2004 SARS outbreak among healthcare workers, Causes of transmission, Psychological effects
This stress has the capability to ease the transmission of the disease, which is a large reason for it being a cause of the disease in HCWs. This is because, as HCWs become more stressed and tired, they compromise the strength of their immune system. As a result, HCWs are more prone to actually getting the disease when they encounter certain causes of transmission, like the high-risk performance causes above.


2002–2004 SARS outbreak among healthcare workers, Causes of transmission, Lack of information, Lack of information about SARS
The outbreak of SARS involved significant amounts of uncertainty, as the specifics of the disease were unknown and treatment was not properly established at first. More importantly, a cure did not (and still does not) exist, and HCWs and others involved originally knew little about how the disease was transmitted and from where it originated. Due to this lack of information, partially coming from the Chinese government's unwillingness to share information on its patients, doctors were not quick to notice and diagnose the disease in its earliest stages, as they were still unsure about the disease's characteristics and origins. These factors collectively allowed the disease to spread much quicker at first, infecting HCWs who knew little about the method of transmission of the disease. They were therefore unable to adequately protect themselves from the disease, and communication surrounding disease treatment and prevention was inhibited by their lack of knowledge.


2002–2004 SARS outbreak among healthcare workers, Causes of transmission, Lack of information, Inadequate training for HCWs
In addition to the POC's release of its set of SARS-specific directives in 2003, there was also training that was to be completed by HCWs planning to deal with and care for SARS patients. This training included video sessions and other lessons equipping HCWs for safe interactions with SARS patients. Unfortunately, not all of this training was done—if at all—before HCWs began to interact with SARS patients.


2002–2004 SARS outbreak among healthcare workers, Causes of transmission, Lack of information, Inadequate training for HCWs
Over a third of HCWs never received any type of formal training, and half of those receiving any formal training received it after they had begun to interact with and care for SARS patients. At the same time, many of the HCWs receiving training received it from another HCW, allowing for the possibility of some error in the training. Aside from this type of training, many HCWs complained that most efforts—which included only posting informational posters in the wards—were inadequate.


2002–2004 SARS outbreak among healthcare workers, Prevention and treatment in the future
After the large outbreak of SARS in 2002–2003, many doctors and organizations, such as the CDC, published a new set of recommendations and guidelines on preventing and dealing with possible outbreaks or cases of SARS in the future. They “revised the draft based on comments received from public health partners, healthcare providers, and others” in November 2003 in order to improve prevention and treatment success throughout the world.


2002–2004 SARS outbreak among healthcare workers, Prevention and treatment in the future
The document is divided into several sections, which include guidelines targeted specifically towards HCWs (e.g. “Preparedness and Response in Healthcare Facilities”) and other proactive measures directed towards whole communities (e.g. “Communication and Education” and “Managing International Travel-Related Transmission Risk”). Furthermore, each section includes a subsection called “Lessons Learned,” where the CDC explains issues and failures in the topic during the past outbreak so that HCWs and others recognize mistakes and do not make them again.


2002–2004 SARS outbreak among healthcare workers, Prevention and treatment in the future
The hope is that HCWs will be able to better prevent the transmission of the disease among themselves but also among others by now having the knowledge and guidelines needed to avoid all of the threats and causes explained above that enabled the transmission of the disease among HCWs from 2002–2003.


2002–2004 SARS outbreak among healthcare workers, Prevention and treatment in the future, Treatment
There is still no vaccine or cure for SARS, and antibiotics are ineffective for treating SARS because the disease is viral. As a result, the quarantine of infected patients is critical to prevent transmission, and using barrier nursing policies is also important to monitor patients in a safe and sanitary way. Fortunately, various governments, health-focused non-profits, and research groups have been working with the CDC and other organizations to try and successfully find a cure for the disease.


2002–2004 SARS outbreak among healthcare workers, Prevention and treatment in the future, Prevention
Because there is no effective cure for SARS yet, types of prevention, including sanitary and cautionary methods (e.g. hand-washing and wearing a surgical mask) remain some of the best ways to prevent the spread of the disease. Even more, lessons learned from the 2002-2003 outbreak point out that greater knowledge about the disease and its methods of transmission, better and more effective training for HCWs, and potential stress-reducers for HCWs dealing with SARS patients, will all help prevent the disease from being transmitted to HCWs and others in the future.


2002–2006 municipal reorganization of Montreal
Montreal was one of the cities in Quebec affected by the 2000–2006 municipal reorganization in Quebec. On January 1, 2002, all the municipalities on the island of Montreal were merged into the city of Montreal.


2002–2006 municipal reorganization of Montreal
However, following a change of government in the 2003 Quebec election and a 2004 referendum, some of those municipalities became independent cities again on January 1, 2006. The recreated cities did not regain all of their previous powers, however. A new urban agglomeration of Montreal was created, which resulted in the recreated cities still sharing certain municipal services with Montreal.


2002–2006 municipal reorganization of Montreal, Merger and demerger, Une île, une ville
Until 2001, the island of Montreal was divided into the city of Montreal proper and 27 smaller municipalities. These formed the Montreal Urban Community (MUC). On January 1, 2002, all 28 municipalities on the island were merged into the "megacity" of Montreal, under the slogan "Une île, une ville" ("One island, one city"). This merger was part of a larger provincial scheme launched by the Parti Québécois all across Quebec, resulting in the merging of many municipalities.


2002–2006 municipal reorganization of Montreal, Merger and demerger, Une île, une ville
It was felt that larger municipalities would be more efficient, and would be more able to withstand comparison with the other cities in Canada, which had already expanded their territory—most notably Toronto, which had merged with the other municipalities of what was then dubbed "Metro Toronto" in 1998-1999 (the GTA is the larger regional area including Toronto and the surrounding cities).


2002–2006 municipal reorganization of Montreal, Merger and demerger, Une île, une ville
As happened elsewhere in Canada, the merger was opposed by many residents on the island of Montreal. The situation on the island of Montreal was further complicated by the presence of predominantly English-speaking municipalities that were due to merge with the predominantly French-speaking city of Montreal. English speakers were afraid to lose their rights, despite claims by the mayor of Montreal that their linguistic rights would remain protected in the new city of Montreal. Many street protests were organized, lawsuits were filed, and 15 municipalities appealed to the Court of Appeal of Quebec. It was all to no avail. In Canada, municipal governments are creatures of the provincial governments, and provincial governments have the power to create and dissolve municipalities by ordinary statute.


2002–2006 municipal reorganization of Montreal, Merger and demerger, Une île, une ville
At the 2001 census, the city of Montreal (185.94 km2/71.80 sq. miles) had 1,039,534 inhabitants. After the merger, the population of the new city of Montreal (500.05 km2/193.10 sq. miles) was 1,812,723 (based on 2001 census figures). The post merger city was 169% larger in terms of land area, and had 74% more people. For comparisons, at the 2001 census the city of Toronto (629.91 km2/243.20 sq. miles) had 2,481,494 inhabitants.


2002–2006 municipal reorganization of Montreal, Merger and demerger, Une île, une ville
The merged city of Montreal was divided into 27 boroughs (known in French as "arrondissements") in charge of local administration. The city government was responsible for larger matters such as economic development or transportation issues. It is only a coincidence that there were 27 independent municipalities before 2002, and 27 arrondissements in the merged entity. In fact, in most areas the arrondissements did not correspond to the former municipalities, cutting across the territory of the former municipalities.


2002–2006 municipal reorganization of Montreal, Merger and demerger, Demerger
At the provincial elections of April 2003, the Quebec Liberal Party defeated the Parti Québécois. One central plank of the Liberal campaign was that if elected, they would allow merged municipalities to organize referendums in order to demerge if they wished to do so. As promised, on June 20, 2004, the referendums were held throughout Quebec.


2002–2006 municipal reorganization of Montreal, Merger and demerger, Demerger
The process to demerge from the forced amalgamation was complicated. (see 2004 Quebec municipal referendums and 2000–2006 municipal reorganization in Quebec) The first stage was to sign a register in order for a referendum to be held, then the population had to vote a second time. In several areas, the referendums failed because even though a majority of those voting supported demerging, it did not meet the required threshold of 35% of registered voters. This process was detailed in a documentary film called The Village Resists: The Forced Municipal Mergers of Quebec by Ryan Young that followed the municipality of Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue as it fought successfully to demerge.


2002–2006 municipal reorganization of Montreal, Merger and demerger, Demerger
On the island of Montreal, referendums were held in 22 of the 27 previously independent municipalities. Following the referendum results, 15 of the previously independent municipalities have regained most of their independence. These are predominantly English-speaking municipalities, with also some French-speaking municipalities. Oddly, one of the 15 municipalities recreated, L'Île-Dorval, had no permanent inhabitants at the 2001 census, being a cottaging island.


2002–2006 municipal reorganization of Montreal, Merger and demerger, Demerger
The demerger took place on January 1, 2006. After this date, there were 16 municipalities on the island of Montreal—the city of Montreal proper plus 15 independent municipalities. The current city of Montreal comprises the pre-2002 city of Montreal plus 12 of the previously independent municipalities, and is divided into 19 arrondisements. The post-demerger city of Montreal has a territory of 366.02 km2 (141.3 sq. miles) and a population of 1,583,590 inhabitants (based on 2001 census figures). Compared with the pre-merger city of Montreal, this is a net increase of 96.8% in land area, and 52.3% in population. Compared with the post-merger city of Montreal, however, this is a net decrease of 26.8% in land area, and 12.64% in population.


2002–2006 municipal reorganization of Montreal, Merger and demerger, Demerger
Corporate lobbies close to the Liberal Party of Quebec stress the fact that after the demerger, the city of Montreal still has almost as many (approx. 88%) inhabitants as the "megacity" of Montreal (the suburban municipalities to be recreated are less densely populated than the core city), and that the overwhelming majority of industrial sites will still be located on the territory of the post-demerger city of Montreal. The post-demerger city of Montreal will be slightly greater than half the size of the post-1998 merger city of Toronto, with roughly two thirds its size in terms of population reflecting higher population density in Montreal even including those 'suburban' municipalities which opted not to demerge.


2002–2006 municipal reorganization of Montreal, Merger and demerger, Demerger
However, both the Liberal government of Quebec and the municipality of Montreal made it clear that the 15 reconstituted municipalities would not have as many powers as before the 2002 merger, even though Charest had promised complete de-amalgamation during the 2003 campaign. As with the other de-merged municipalities across Quebec, the recreated municipalities remained tied to Montreal via the newly created urban agglomeration of Montreal. While the recreated municipalities regained most of their former powers, major expenses such as police, fire and maintenance of main streets remained with the Montreal Agglomeration Council, a joint board covering the entire island of Montreal. The city of Montreal controls a supermajority of votes on the board.


2002–2006 municipal reorganization of Montreal, Merger and demerger, Demerger
Despite the demerger referendums held in 2004, the controversy is still raging in Quebec. It is now focusing on the cost of demerging. Several studies show that the recreated municipalities will incur substantial financial costs, thus forcing them to increase taxes, though proponents of the demerger contest these studies.


2002–2006 municipal reorganization of Montreal, Merger and demerger, Demerger
The island of Montreal is only one component of the Montreal Metropolitan Community (French: Communauté métropolitaine de Montréal), in charge of planning, coordinating, and financing economic development, public transportation, garbage collection, etc., across the metropolitan area of Montreal. The Metropolitan Community of Montreal covers 3,839 km2 (1,482 sq. miles), with 3,431,551 inhabitants living inside its borders in 2002; it is thus larger in area and population than the city of Toronto (even after its 1998 merger).


2002–2006 municipal reorganization of Montreal, Merger and demerger, Demerger
However, the city of Toronto is larger than the city of Montreal proper, and Toronto's metro area (not a legal entity) is larger than the Montreal Metropolitan Community, with 7,000 square kilometres (2,700 sq mi) and 5.8 million people. The president of the Montreal Metropolitan Community is the mayor of Montreal.


2003
2003 (MMIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar, the 2003rd year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 3rd  year of the 3rd millennium, the 3rd  year of the 21st century, and the  4th   year of the 2000s decade.


2003
2003 was designated the International Year of the Fresh Water.


2003 1. deild
The 2003 1. deild was contested by 10 teams, and Havnar Bóltfelag won the championship.


2003 1. deild, Results
The schedule consisted of a total of 18 games. Each team played two games against every opponent in no particular order. One of the games was at home and one was away.


2003 1. deild karla
The 2003 season of 1. deild karla was the 49th season of second-tier football in Iceland.


2003 10,000 Lakes Festival
The 2003 10,000 Lakes Festival in Detroit Lakes, Minnesota was held July 1 through July 4.


2003 10,000 Lakes Festival, 2003 Lineup
The musicians that performed at the festival were Widespread Panic, Allman Brothers Band, Gov't Mule, moe., Galactic, Leftover Salmon, O.A.R., Leo Kottke, The Big Wu, Particle, Jerry Joseph and the Jackmormons, Donna The Buffalo, Wookiefoot, Topaz, Echo, Big Tasty, Kung Fu Hippies, The Lost Trailers, Sojorn, Front Porch Swingin' Liquor Pigs, Jim Bianco, Tim Sparks, McCloskey Brothers Band, Foggy Bottom Band and the Jack Brass Band.


2003 1000 Guineas
The 2003 1000 Guineas Stakes was a horse race held at Newmarket Racecourse on Sunday 4 May 2003. It was the 190th running of the 1000 Guineas.


2003 1000 Guineas
The winner was the Cheveley Park Stud's Russian Rhythm, a Pennsylvania-bred chestnut filly trained in Newmarket, Suffolk by Michael Stoute and ridden by Kieren Fallon. Russian Rhythm's victory was the first in the race for her owner, the second for Stoute after Musical Bliss (1989) and the third for Fallon after Sleepytime (1997) and Wince (1999).


2003 1000 Guineas, The contenders
The race attracted a field of nineteen runners, fifteen trained in the United Kingdom, two in Ireland and two in France. The favourite was the French filly Six Perfections who had been named European Champion Two-year old Filly in 2002 when she had won the Prix du Calvados and the Group One Prix Marcel Boussac. On her three-year-old debut she had won the Prix Imprudence at Maisons-Laffitte Racecourse in April. The other French challenger was the André Fabre-trained Intercontinental, winner of three of her four races.


2003 1000 Guineas, The contenders
Ireland was represented by two runners from the Ballydoyle stable of Aidan O'Brien: Yesterday, who went on to win the Irish 1000 Guineas, and L'Ancresse, the runner-up in the Leopardstown 1,000 Guineas Trial Stakes. The Godolphin stable fielded Mezzo Soprano and Gonfilia, who had finished first and second in the UAE 1000 Guineas. The leading British-trained contender was the undefeated Soviet Song, winner of the Sweet Solera Stakes and Fillies' Mile. Other challengers included Russian Rhythm (Princess Margaret Stakes, Lowther Stakes, Cheveley Park Stakes), Tante Rose (Fred Darling Stakes) and Khulood (Nell Gwyn Stakes). Russian Rhythm had been joint-favourite for the race before performing poorly in training gallops. Six Perfections headed the betting at odds of 7/4 ahead of Soviet Song (4/1), Intercontinental (5/1), Mezzo Soprano (7/1) and Russian Rhythm (12/1).


2003 1000 Guineas, The race
Shortly after the start, most of the fillies moved to the stands side of the wide Newmarket straight (the left side of the course from the jockey's point of view) and Hector's Girl set the pace from Khulood. Other horses racing prominently in the early stages were Yesterday, Casual Look, Summitville, Duty Paid, L'Ancresse, Mezzo Soprano and Gonfilia whilst most of the leading fancies were restrained towards the back of the field. Gonfilia moved into the lead approaching the final quarter-mile at which point there was a good deal of bunching and scrimmaging, with several runners being badly hampered.


2003 1000 Guineas, The race
Thulliez was forced to switch the favourite Six Perfections to the wide outside. Intercontinental gained the advantage approaching the final furlong but was soon challenged by Russian Rhythm with Soviet Song close behind and Six Perfections making rapid progress. Russian Rhythm took the lead just inside the final furlong and stayed on to win by one and a half lengths from the fast-finishing Six Perfections, with Intercontinental taking third ahead of Soviet Song and the 50/1 outsider Hanami. Casual Look, later to win the Oaks Stakes, stayed on to take sixth ahead of Summitville and Yesterday.


2003 1000 Guineas, The race
After the race Russian Rhythm's trainer Michael Stoute said: "I really had not been pleased with her preparation. Kieren was a little bit more confident than I was, but fortunately she has come right on the day. That was a high-class performance. Maybe she was just kidding me at home. I was just reporting honestly, but the public probably think I conned them".


2003 1000 km of Le Mans
The 2003 1000 km of Le Mans was a one-off sports car event run under the organization of the Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO) in preparation for the Le Mans Endurance Series that began in 2004. It was run on 9 November 2003 at the Bugatti Circuit near Le Mans, France.


2003 1000 km of Le Mans, Development
The ACO, having previous helped in the creation of the American Le Mans Series with the running of the 1998 Petit Le Mans, as well as a failed attempt at a Japanese sportscar series with the 1999 Le Mans Fuji 1000km, created the 1000 km of Le Mans as an experimental event to gauge the desire for teams to participate in a European-based endurance sportscar series under Le Mans rules.


2003 1000 km of Le Mans, Development
Previously, the FIA Sportscar and FIA GT Championships had run primarily in Europe, but were not running as a combined series, one concentrating on prototypes and the other grand tourers, and featured mostly sprint or middle-distance races. Don Panoz, creator of the American Le Mans Series, had attempted to create a European series to combine the two types of sportscars with the European Le Mans Series, but had failed to gain enough entrants. The ACO, weary of the same occurrence, decided to hold a single race to see how much participation there would actually be.


2003 1000 km of Le Mans, Development
Although officially run under the Le Mans Endurance Series name, this did not count towards any championship. In order to help bolster the number of entrants, the ACO promised winners in each of the four race classes automatic invitations to the 2004 24 Hours of Le Mans.


2003 1000 km of Le Mans, Development
Unlike the usual 24 Hours of Le Mans run in June at the 13 km Circuit de la Sarthe, the 1000 km of Le Mans ran on the 4.3 km Bugatti Circuit which did not use closed public roads.


2003 1000 km of Le Mans, Official results
Class winners in bold. Cars failing to complete 75% of winner's distance marked as Not Classified (NC).


2003 1000 km of Le Mans, Post-Race
Following a successful turn out from a large number of European teams, as well as a handful of American and Japanese teams, the event was considered a success. With this, the ACO pushed forward with their development of the Le Mans Endurance Series, debuting in 2004. This move would also lead to the demise of the FIA Sportscar Championship, as prototype teams chose instead to participate in LMES.


2003 1000 km of Le Mans, Post-Race
Since this event, the LMES has not returned to Le Mans as part of their regular schedule, although many LMES participants race in the 24 Hours of Le Mans.


2003 1000 km of Spa
The 2003 1000 km of Spa was the sixth race for the 2003 FIA Sportscar Championship season (running under SR1 and SR2 classes) and the ninth race for the 2003 British GT Championship season (running under GTO and GT Cup classes), running in combination at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps. It took place on August 31, 2003.


2003 1000 km of Spa, Official results
Class winners in bold. Cars failing to complete 75% of winner's distance marked as Not Classified (NC).


2003 12 Hours of Sebring
The 2003 12 Hours of Sebring was the 51st running of this event, and took place on March 15, 2003. This was also the opening race of the 2003 American Le Mans Series season.


2003 12 Hours of Sebring, Official results
Class winners in bold. Cars failing to complete 70% of winner's distance marked as Not Classified (NC).


2003 12 Hours of Sebring, Official results
† - #30 was disqualified for receiving outside assistance while still on the race course.


2003 2 Hour Showroom Showdown
The 2003 2 Hour Showroom Showdown Race was an endurance race for Australian GT Production Cars. The event was staged at the Mount Panorama Circuit, Bathurst, New South Wales, Australia on Saturday 22 November 2003 as a support event on program for the 2003 Bathurst 24 Hour. This was the seventh and final Showroom Showdown production car endurance race.


2003 2 Hour Showroom Showdown
Rod Salmon and Grant Park, driving a Subaru Impreza WRX STi won the race by 27 seconds ahead of the Mazda RX-7 driven by Bob Pearson with the Ford Falcon-based Tickford TE50 of John Falk finishing third.


2003 2. deild karla
The 2003 season of 2. deild karla was the 38th season of third-tier football in Iceland.


2003 2. divisjon
This is the current revision of this page, as edited by Jolicnikola (talk | contribs) at 23:42, 2 April 2020 (→League tables). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this version.


2003 2. divisjon
The 2003 2. divisjon season was the third highest football league for men in Norway.


2003 2. divisjon
26 games were played in 4 groups, with 3 points given for wins and 1 for draws. Pors Grenland, Kongsvinger, Vard Haugesund and Tromsdalen were promoted to the 1. divisjon. Number twelve, thirteen and fourteen were relegated to the 3. divisjon. The winning teams from each of the 24 groups in the 3. divisjon each faced a winning team from another group in a playoff match, resulting in 12 playoff winners which were promoted to the 2. divisjon.


2003 24 Hours of Daytona
The 2003 Rolex 24 at Daytona was a Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series 24-hour endurance sports car race held on February 1–2, 2003 at the Daytona International Speedway road course. The race served as the first round of the 2003 Rolex Sports Car Series. The race saw the debut of the Daytona Prototype as the new top class of the series. However, the new cars proved only marginally faster than the lower classes and suffered frequent mechanical failures during the race, allowing a car from the GT class to take overall victory.


2003 24 Hours of Daytona
Overall victory and victory in the GT class went to the No. 66 Porsche 996 GT3-RS from The Racer's Group, driven by Kevin Buckler, Michael Schrom, Jörg Bergmeister, and Timo Bernhard. The Daytona Prototype class was won by the No. 88 Multimatic MDP1 from Multimatic driven by Scott Maxwell, David Brabham, and David Empringham. The SRP II class was won by the No. 5 Lola-Nissan from Team Seattle/Essex Racing, driven by Ross Bentley, Don Kitch Jr., Joe Pruskowski, and Justin Pruskowski. Finally, the GTS class was won by the No. 24 Mosler MT900 from Perspective Racing, driven by Jérôme Policand, Michel Neugarten, João Barbosa, and Andy Wallace.


2003 24 Hours of Le Mans
The 71st 24 Hours of Le Mans (French: 71e 24 Heures du Mans) was an 24 hour automobile endurance race held for Le Mans Prototype and Grand Touring cars from 14 to 15 June 2003 at the Circuit de la Sarthe close to Le Mans, France before approximately 220,000 people. It was the 71st edition of the 24 Hour race, as organised by the automotive group, the Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO) since 1923. Unlike other events, it was not a part of any endurance motor racing championship. A test day was held seven weeks prior to the race on 4 May.


2003 24 Hours of Le Mans
A Bentley Speed 8 shared by Dane Tom Kristensen, Italian Rinaldo Capello and Englishman Guy Smith started from the pole position after Kristensen set the fastest overall lap time in the second qualifying session. The team won the race, two laps ahead of the sister Bentley of Mark Blundell, David Brabham and Johnny Herbert in second place. It was Capello and Smith's first Le Mans victory and Kristensen's fifth. This was the sixth overall victory for Bentley, and their first since the 1930 edition. The overall podium was completed by Champion Racing's Audi R8 of JJ Lehto, Emanuele Pirro and Stefan Johansson, which won the Le Mans Prototype 900 (LMP900) category from Audi Sport Japan Team Goh's entry driven by Seiji Ara, Jan Magnussen and Marco Werner.


2003 24 Hours of Le Mans
A Noël del Bello Racing Reynard 2KQ-LM driven by Jean-Luc Maury-Laribière, Christophe Pillon and Didier André won the Le Mans Prototype 675 (LMP675) class, 32 laps ahead of the second-placed RN Motorsport DBA4 03S-Zytek car of John Nielsen, Casper Elgaard and Hayanari Shimoda. The Veloqx Prodrive Racing team of Jamie Davies, Tomáš Enge, Peter Kox won the Le Mans Grand Touring Sport (LMGTS) class in a Ferrari 550-GTS Maranello, securing Ferrari its first GT win since the 1981 race. Corvette Racing completed the category podium positions a further ten laps behind in second and third with their two C5-Rs. Porsche took the first six positions in the Le Mans Grand Touring (LMGT) category with an Alex Job Racing (AJR) 911-GT3 RS of Sascha Maassen, Emmanuel Collard and Lucas Luhr winning on the team's debut appearance at Le Mans.


2003 24 Hours of Le Mans, Background and regulation changes
The 2003 24 Hours of Le Mans was the 71st edition of the race and took place at the 8.482 mi (13.650 km) Circuit de la Sarthe road racing circuit close to Le Mans, France, from 14 to 15 June. The automotive journalist Charles Faroux proposed the race to Georges Durand, the president of the Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO), and the industrialist Emile Coquile for a test of vehicle reliability and fuel-efficiency, which was first held in 1923. The 24 Hours of Le Mans is considered one of the world's most prestigious motor races and is part of the Triple Crown of Motorsport.


2003 24 Hours of Le Mans, Background and regulation changes
After the 2002 race, the ACO reduced the overall amount of horsepower for the Le Mans Grand Touring Prototype (LMGTP), Le Mans Prototype 900 (LMP900), Le Mans Prototype 675 (LMP675), Le Mans Grand Touring Sports (LMGTS) and LMGT (Le Mans Grand Touring) categories by 10 per cent. It allowed carbon fibre chassis to be introduced in the LMGTS class and permitted original automatic and semi-automatic gearboxes to be retained in a homologated road vehicle entered in the LMGTS and LMGT categories.


2003 24 Hours of Le Mans, Background and regulation changes
Air restrictors were installed on every engine and boost pressures were altered in an attempt to create a parity of performance within all four categories. Drivers were told at a public meeting that they were barred from putting two wheels of a car over the white line denoting the boundaries of the circuit and onto the kerbing; otherwise, they would incur a stop-and-go penalty that would increase in severity if the transgression was repeated.


2003 24 Hours of Le Mans, Entries
The ACO received 72 applications (31 for the Prototype classes and 41 for the Grand Touring categories) by the deadline for entries on 20 February 2003. It granted 50 invitations to the race and entries were divided between the LMP900, LMGTP, LMP675, LMGTS and LMGT classes.


2003 24 Hours of Le Mans, Entries, Automatic entries
Six automatic entry invitations were earned by teams of two cars that won their class in the 2002 24 Hours of Le Mans or in the 2002 American Le Mans Series (ALMS) season-closing round, the Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta, designated a qualifying race by the ACO as part of an agreement with the ALMS. As entries were designated for teams, the squads were not allowed to change their cars from the previous year to the next.


2003 24 Hours of Le Mans, Entries, Automatic entries
They were permitted to change category provided there was no change in the make of car and the ACO consented to the switch. The teams who received an automatic entry based on victory in their class at the 2002 24 Hours of Le Mans were Audi Sport Team Joest in both of the LMP categories, Corvette Racing for the LMGTS class and The Racer's Group (TRG) in the LMGT category. Audi Sport North America and Corvette also earned berths for securing victories in their respective classes at the Petit Le Mans and Alex Job Racing in the LMGT category. However, Audi chose not to accept its automatic invitations after the manufacturer announced the withdrawal of its factory operations and forwent its defense of the overall victory.


2003 24 Hours of Le Mans, Entries, Entry list
On 25 March 2003, the selection committee of the ACO announced the full 50-car entry list for Le Mans, plus six reserves. The field was composed of an equal number of Prototype and GT cars, representing 22 different makes of car (14 in the GT classes and 8 in the Prototype categories).


2003 24 Hours of Le Mans, Entries, Entry list
After a protest was raised by Larbre Compétition owner Jack Leconte and alpine skier Luc Alphand over their respective teams being allocated one entry, Michel Cosson, the president of the ACO, said that entries selected appeared to be of high quality and the automotive group wanted the field to be heterogeneous. He stated it was not the right way to select entries for the race, but he disliked those who sought to spoil the excitement of the event.


2003 24 Hours of Le Mans, Entries, Bio-ethanol car
Team Nasamax, an operation based in Sittingbourne, England, entered the first renewable-fuelled sports prototype racing car at the Le Mans event to increase awareness of renewable fuels. The car, called the Reynard 01Q, ran a 2.65 l (0.58 imp gal; 0.70 US gal) Cosworth V8 turbocharged engine on bio-ethanol fuel, which does not release carbon dioxide into the atmosphere because it is produced from crops. The car's fuel systems and inlet air system were modified to allow for the efficient combustion of fuel. An alternative exhaust system was built and the housing and vanes on the turbocharger were altered.


2003 24 Hours of Le Mans, Testing
A mandatory pre-Le Mans testing day split into two daytime sessions of four hours each was held at the circuit on 4 May, involving all 50 entries as well as all six reserve cars. The weather was clear and dry. Bentley was fastest with a lap of 3 minutes, 34.820 seconds set by Tom Kristensen in the No. 7 Speed 8 in the final minutes of testing. Jan Magnussen was the fastest of the privateer Audi R8s for Team Goh in second place and the No. 7 Bentley was third.


2003 24 Hours of Le Mans, Testing
The Audi Sport UK and the Champion Racing entries were fourth and fifth. Late in testing, Frank Biela lost control on a patch of oil laid by a Pagani Zonda at the Porsche Curves, crashing into a barrier at 120 mph (190 km/h) and damaging the right-rear corner of the Audi Sport UK car. The No. 26 RN Motorsport DBA4 03S-Zytek car led in LMP675 with a 3 minutes, 47.708 seconds lap, followed by the No. 29 Noël del Bello Racing Reynard 2KQ-LM and the No. 27 Intersport Racing MG-Lola EX257vehicles.


2003 24 Hours of Le Mans, Testing
Tomáš Enge's No. 88 Prodrive Ferrari 550-GTS Maranello recorded the fastest lap in LMGTS at 3 minutes, 57.180 seconds, the sister No. 80 car of Kelvin Burt placed second and Jérôme Policand completed a top-three sweep of Ferraris in the class in the No. 72 Luc Alphand Aventures entry. Jörg Bergmeister's No. 81 TRG Porsche 911 GT3-RS led the LMGT category at 4 minutes, 8.636 seconds and the No. 93 Alex Job Racing (AJR) car of Sascha Maassen was second.


2003 24 Hours of Le Mans, Qualifying
Eight hours of qualifying divided into four two-hour sessions were available to all the entrants on 11 and 12 June. During the sessions, all entrants were required to set a time within 110 per cent of the fastest lap set by the fastest vehicle in each of the four categories to qualify for the race. The weather was overcast and humid, and teams focused on car setup. Bentley led early on with a flying lap from Mark Blundell's No. 8 car, followed by Kristensen and Johnny Herbert, who went faster.


2003 24 Hours of Le Mans, Qualifying
Ultimately, Blundell went to the top with a lap of 3 minutes, 35.321 seconds. Kristensen's No. 7 vehicle was a quarter of a second slower in second and Jan Magnussen was the fastest Audi privateer in third. Jan Lammers' No. 15 Racing for Holland Dome S101 improved on each of his timed laps to finish fourth, and JJ Lehto of Champion Racing was fifth. John Nielsen carried RN Motorsport's DBA4 03S-Zytek car to provisional pole position in LMP675 with a time of 3 minutes, 45.243 seconds, eight seconds ahead of the Intersport and Automotive Durango SRL teams.


2003 24 Hours of Le Mans, Qualifying
A lap of 3 minutes, 55.613 seconds set with five minutes to go put Oliver Gavin's No. 50 Chevrolet Corvette C5-R at the top of the LMGTS category, demoting Enge's Prodrive Ferrari to second. Johnny O'Connell's No. 53 car was third after setting a lap in the final ten minutes. AJR's Porsche of Maassen topped the timing charts in LMGT, almost three seconds faster than Timo Bernhard's TRG car and another seven-tenths ahead of Marc Lieb's No. 87 Orbit entry. Separate spins from Chris McMurry, Kevin Buckler, Peter Kox and Andrew Bagnall did not disrupt the session.


2003 24 Hours of Le Mans, Qualifying
Wednesday night's qualifying session was held with lower asphalt temperatures and teams performed scheduled simulation runs to see how their cars would behave on heavy fuel loads and worn tyres under darkness in its final 75 minutes. A lack of slower traffic and better grip allowed Kristensen to displace Blundell as the fastest overall and twice improve the overall fastest lap to 3 minutes, 32.843 seconds, followed by David Brabham's sister No. 8 Bentley in second and Biela's No. 10 Audi third. Emanuele Pirro put the No. 6 Audi fourth as Lammers fell to fifth.


2003 24 Hours of Le Mans, Qualifying
Marco Werner's Team Goh Audi ran into a gravel trap; he continued driving. In LMP675, Nielsen improved the RN Motorsport Zytek car's lap by a second to 3 minutes, 44.343 and increased its advantage over the Intersport team to almost ten seconds. 75 minutes into the session, the Team Bucknum Racing Pilbeam-JPX MP91 car had an engine fault at Indianapolis corner and laid oil on the track. Marshals took 20 minutes to dry the spilled oil and qualifying resumed. Enge's Prodrive Ferrari led from the start in the LMGTS class.


2003 24 Hours of Le Mans, Qualifying
He improved on Corvette Racing's lap from the first session to a 3 minutes, 53.278 seconds. Maassen in the AJR Porsche remained at the top of the LMGT category after a session-long battle with Bernhard. Bagnall lost control of the Seikel Motorsport Porsche and got beached in a gravel trap. David Warnock's PK Sport car sustained track rod damage in a collision with a Prototype in the Dunlop Chicane.


2003 24 Hours of Le Mans, Qualifying
Thursday's first qualifying session was stopped after seven minutes because of an accident. Jamie Campbell-Walter spun a Lister Storm LMP car after hitting a bump on the exit of the Dunlop Esses. He crashed backwards against a left-hand side barrier at the Dunlop Curve at 146 mph (235 km/h). The impact was measured at 14 g0 (140 m/s2), and marshals and safety teams spent ten minutes extricating Campbell-Walter from the car, removing a section of carbon fibre bodywork trapping his legs and put him into an ambulance.


2003 24 Hours of Le Mans, Qualifying
The Lister Storm LMP car was later withdrawn due to a lack of spare parts. Later, Ian Khan's Thierry Perrier Porsche engine failed and laid oil on the circuit at the Dunlop Chicane. Robin Liddell was caught out, hit the oil and spun into a gravel trap. At the same time, Roland Bervillé spun, hit a barrier with his front-right hand corner and broke the rear wing on the T2M Motorsport car, temporarily stopping the session. Herbert's No. 8 Bentley led the session with a lap of 3 minutes, 35.126 seconds but remained second on the provisional grid.


2003 24 Hours of Le Mans, Qualifying
Magnussen used lower air temperatures to improve the Team Goh Audi's lap and pass Lammers for third at the close of the session. Lehto bettered the Champion Racing's entry to stay fourth. Although the RN Motorsport Zytek car did not better its lap, it remained on provisional pole in LMP675, while the Intersport Lola vehicle improved by more than five seconds to remain in second in class. Enge's lap from the second session kept him at the top of LMGTS as Darren Turner in the sister Prodrive Ferrari overtook the No. 50 Corvette for second. AJR continued to lead the LMGT class due to its lap from the previous day.


2003 24 Hours of Le Mans, Qualifying
The final session was used to test cars under race conditions and saw more incidents. Thomas Erdos in the Graham Nash Motorsport Saleen S7-R stopped on his out-lap in a gravel trap at the Dunlop Chicane, requiring recovery from trackside marshals. Gavin Pickering's Rachel Welter WR-Peugeot car stopped at the exit of the pit lane with bodywork flailing from it. Kristensen allowed his co-drivers Rinaldo Capello and Guy Smith to become familiar with the No. 7 Bentley, which led the session and secured the pole position through Kristensen's lap from the second session.


2003 24 Hours of Le Mans, Qualifying
Herbert improved the sister No. 8 Bentley's lap on his second attempt by one-tenth of a second; it remained in second overall due to slower traffic delaying Herbert. Audi were unable to challenge but Biela improved the Audi Sport UK team's fastest lap to take third and Magnussen qualified the Team Goh car fifth; they were separated by Lammers' Racing for Holland Dome car.


2003 24 Hours of Le Mans, Qualifying
Intersport's MG-Lola car went faster but it was not fast enough to displace the RN Motorsport Zytek car, which was impaired by a broken throttle linkage, from the top of the LMP675 category and was two seconds slower. The GT categories remained mostly the same with the second session lap of Enge's No. 88 Prodrive Ferrari in LMGTS class again not being improved upon as his teammate Turner moved to within four-tenths of a second. Porsche took the first three positions in the LMGT category, with Lucas Luhr's AJR car resetting the category lap record to a 4 minutes, 6.984 seconds and Bernhard's TRG entry was four-hundredths of a seconds behind in second.


2003 24 Hours of Le Mans, Qualifying, Qualifying results
Pole position winners in each class are indicated in bold The fastest time set by each entry is denoted in gray.


2003 24 Hours of Le Mans, Warm-up
The drivers took to the track at 09:00 Central European Summer Time (UTC+02:00) for a 45-minute warm-up session in overcast and cool weather. Bentley continued to be fastest overall as Blundell's No. 8 car recorded a lap of 3 minutes, 35.319 seconds. He was 2.615 seconds faster than the No. 7 Bentley in second place. The Audi Sport UK R8 was third, Champion Racing was fourth and the Racing for Holland Home car rounded out the top five.


2003 24 Hours of Le Mans, Warm-up
RN Motorsport's Zytek car continued to lead in LMP675, as the No. 50 Corvette led the LMGTS field and the TRG Porsche led in LMGT. Shortly after the session commenced, Romain Dumas' Team Nasamax Reynard had an ignition problem caused by a heat leak at the right of the engine's cylinder bank, significantly damaging its engine compartment and required a significant change of car components.


2003 24 Hours of Le Mans, Race, Start
Thunderstorms were forecast, and despite an earlier heavy rain shower, the weather at the start of the race was clear. The air temperature approached 28 °C (82 °F). Approximately 220,000 people attended the event. The two Bentley Speed 8s underwent checks to their ride heights, Ray Mallock rectified a faulty gearbox that leaked oil in the No. 64 Saleen S7-R, and Kondo Racing replaced the No. 9 Dome S101's V8 engine after a water leak.


2003 24 Hours of Le Mans, Race, Start
The French tricolour was waved by the founder of the ALMS Don Panoz at 16:00 Central European Summer Time to signal the start of the race, led by the starting pole sitter Capello's No. 7 Bentley. 49 cars planned to take the start following the withdrawal of the Lister Storm LMP, but the No. 25 Gerard Welter WR LMP02 was in the pit lane with a mechanical fault. Capello maintained the lead and Lammers' Racing for Holland car passed Magnussen's Team Goh Audi for third.


2003 24 Hours of Le Mans, Race, Start
At the end of the first lap, Gavin brought the No. 50 Corvette into the pit lane with a throttle linkage problem that lost the car 26 minutes and dropped it to last overall. Lammers fell from second to sixth when the three privateer Audis passed him as Bentley quickly pulled away from the rest of the field. Herbert briefly took the lead from Capello before making the No. 8 Bentley's first pit stop of the event on lap 10. Meanwhile, Intersport's Lola-MG vehicle moved to the front of LMP675 after the RN Motorsport Zytek developed car trouble and AJR led the LMGT category.


2003 24 Hours of Le Mans, Race, Start
The first hour of the race ended with the first crash as the No. 91 TVR Tuscan T400R of Richard Stanton was hit from behind by a Gerard Walter WR LMP02 car in the Porsche Curves, sending him into the outside concrete barrier at the exit to the complex. The impact broke the Tuscan's right-rear suspension, stranding Stanton at the complex of turns. The car was retired after repairs made to its differential by Stanton to make it drive-able for a return to the pit lane proved unsuccessful. Not long after, Capello locked the No. 7


2003 24 Hours of Le Mans, Race, Start
Bentley's brakes going into the right-hand Mulsanne Corner and he slowed to stop the car from spinning into a gravel trap. He held off Herbert in a large amount of slower traffic until Herbert passed him to retake the lead on the 23rd lap. Kristensen relieved Capello in the No. 7 Bentley and retook the overall lead from Lehto's Audi R8 three laps later. Brabham's sister No. 8 car was called into the pit lane to have a loose door frame fixed in a ten-second stop.


2003 24 Hours of Le Mans, Race, Start
Casper Elgaard had been the fastest driver in LMP675 at the time, returning the RN Motorsport Zytek to the lead of the class. Audi Sport UK instructed Biela to enter the pit lane on lap 28. He was prevented from doing so by a Panoz prototype vehicle to his right and was required to complete an additional lap. The R8 slowed with a lack of fuel through Mulsanne Corner and it was retired at the side of the track after Biela's attempt to weave and keep the car running on its starter failed.


2003 24 Hours of Le Mans, Race, Start
In the third hour, Kristensen almost made contact with Jean-Marc Gounon's Courage Compétition Judd exiting the pit lane. Beppe Gabbiani's Racing for Holland car hit Kelly Collins' No. 50 Corvette at Arnage corner and both cars spun. Brabham's No. 8 Bentley passed Werner's Team Goh Audi R8 for second at the Dunlop Curve though Werner used slower traffic to retake the position. Brabham returned to second when Werner entered the pit lane as the RN Motorsport Zytek car lost the lead of the LMP675 class to Noël del Bello Racing's Reynard car of Didier André as its alternator was changed.


2003 24 Hours of Le Mans, Race, Start
Safety cars were deployed after 3 hours and 40 minutes to slow the race because oil was laid by an unknown car between the Mulsanne and Indianapolis turns. This prompted several cars to make pit stops and brought much of the field closer. In the main LMP categories, the safety cars separated the field, leaving the Bentleys more than 2 minutes and 17 seconds of each other, 50 seconds ahead of Werner's Team Goh Audi and another 50 seconds in front of Stefan Johansson's Champion Racing car.


2003 24 Hours of Le Mans, Race, Start
The lead of LMGT changed as Emmanuel Collard's AJR Porsche was forced into the pit lane with a malfunctioning gearshift, allowing Buckler's TRG vehicle to take the category lead until Bernhard made an unscheduled pit stop to replace a heavily slipping clutch. The No. 88 Prodrive Ferrari of Jamie Davies came to the pit lane for a two-minute stop to rectify a water leak, ceding the lead to the sister No. 80 car of Kelvin Burt.


2003 24 Hours of Le Mans, Race, Night
As night fell, the lead of the LMP675 category switched from the No. 29 Noël del Bello Racing's Reynard vehicle to the Intersport Racing MG-Lola car, which later had an anxious moment when driver Duncan Dayton spun at the PlayStation chicane. He managed to retain the lead in the class. Soon after, Tom Coronel's St Team Orange Spyker C8 Double-12R stopped at the entry to the pit lane with a clutch failure. He exited the car to push it beyond a white line denoting where his pit crew could provide assistance.


2003 24 Hours of Le Mans, Race, Night
Coronel was then told by a trackside marshal that he was not permitted to push the car any further and it dropped out of reach of completing the laps necessary for classification. At the front of the field, the gap between Smith and Capello's No. 7 Bentley and Blundell and Herbert's sister No. 8 car was 33 seconds. Third position was the Champion Racing Audi R8 of Pirro and Seiji Ara's Team Goh entry was fourth.


2003 24 Hours of Le Mans, Race, Night
The LMGTS category was a close battle between the Prodrive pair of Kox and Anthony Davidson, as both cars set next to identical lap times during the seventh hour. Ron Fellows' No. 53 Corvette equalled their pace until the Ferraris responded by increasing their speed. In the eighth hour, Davidson spun into a gravel trap at the PlayStation chicane. The resulting pit stop to change the No. 80 Prodrive Ferrari's tyres and a precautionary check lost Davidson two laps and third place in LMGTS to Fellows.


2003 24 Hours of Le Mans, Race, Night
Eighth place overall became a multi-car battle between David Saelens' Panoz, the Courage Compétition of Gounon and Christophe Tinseau's Riley & Scott Mk III C-Ford; all three drivers were within 20 seconds of each other. Tinseau bowed out of the battle after a routine pit stop, leaving Saelens and Gounon 18 seconds apart. On lap 116, Herbert's No. 8 Bentley made a pit stop; a miscommunication between the mechanic holding a jack and a rear tyre fitter lost him ten seconds.


2003 24 Hours of Le Mans, Race, Night
19 laps later, Lammers' Racing for Holland car lowered a 15-second gap through its faster pace to pass Olivier Beretta's Riley & Scott Ford in the final third of the lap for fifth overall. Soon after, Beretta picked up a puncture from hitting debris on the dirty side of the Mulsanne Straight at 190 mph (310 km/h) and slowed en route to the pit lane. The second-place car in the LMGTS category, the No. 50 Corvette of Fellows, was hindered by a suspected alternator belt failure and entered the pit lane.


2003 24 Hours of Le Mans, Race, Night
Mechanics found it was a broken pulley operating the vehicle's oil pump. They replaced the support and the battery, enabling Fellows to rejoin the circuit fourth in class. Kristensen's No. 7 Bentley had a 1-minute and 40-second pit stop to have minor damage at the front of the car repaired; he retained the overall lead over Brabham's sister No. 8 car. Luhr's No. 83 AJR Porsche succumbed to raised oil and water temperatures caused by a sharp rock penetrating its radiator. It spent 24 minutes and five laps having its radiator replaced and Luhr ceded the LMGT class lead to Kazuyuki Nishizawa's No. 77 Team Taisan Advan car.


2003 24 Hours of Le Mans, Race, Night
Magnussen spun at the Ford chicane and damaged the front suspension on Team Goh's Audi R8. He drove the car to the pit lane and mechanics took 8 minutes and 53 seconds to make repairs. The car rejoined in fourth place with Werner driving. Noël del Bello Racing had an anxious moment when driver Jean-Luc Maury-Laribière spun into a gravel trap at the Dunlop Curves. He recovered with assistance from trackside marshals without losing the LMP675 class lead. Soheil Ayari's No. 18 Courage vehicle overtook Scott Maxwell's No. 12 Panoz LMP01 Evo car for ninth overall and pulled away.


2003 24 Hours of Le Mans, Race, Night
All three of the top cars in LMGT were within a lap of each other, led by Johnny Mowlem's No. 94 Risi Competizione Ferrari after Team Taisan Advan made a pit stop to replace the driver's-side door. Mowlem held it until his car's engine failed on the Mulsanne Straight and ceded the lead of the class to Lieb's Orbit Porsche. Werner's Team Goh Audi R8 twice drove into its garage for repairs to its engine control unit and lost 10 minutes and 14 seconds.


2003 24 Hours of Le Mans, Race, Night
Werner rejoined 3 minutes and 20 seconds in front of Andy Wallace's No. 15 Racing for Holland car. As the race approached its halfway point, the No. 7 Bentley of Smith lapped two to five seconds faster than Blundell's No. 8 car and increased the vehicle's overall lead to 1 minute and 20 seconds.


2003 24 Hours of Le Mans, Race, Morning to early afternoon
In the 12th hour, the second-placed car in LMGTS, Davidson's No. 80 Prodrive Ferrari had a right-front wheel bearing fault at 175 mph (282 km/h) and was sent into a barrier at the end of the Mulsanne Straight. He extricated himself from the car and was tended to by trackside marshals. Davidson was transported by ambulance to the infield medical centre for circuit doctors to examine him. They found he had sustained bruising and a head concussion from hitting his head against a door; he was taken to Centre Hospitalier Le Mans for a brain scan.


2003 24 Hours of Le Mans, Race, Morning to early afternoon
The Ferrari's retirement elevated the No. 50 Corvette C5-R of Gavin to second in LMGTS. Prodrive asked Kox in the No. 88 Ferrari to enter the pit lane for a precautionary brake check. Not long after, a low voltage indicator warning and no radio communication to the No. 8 Bentley's pit stall prompted Blundell to make a pit stop for a replacement battery, losing the car two laps to the sister No. 7 entry.


2003 24 Hours of Le Mans, Race, Morning to early afternoon
The lead of LMGT continued to be closely fought with the No. 93 AJR Porsche heading the field until a front splitter problem forced it into the pit lane for four minutes, giving the position to Lieb's Orbit vehicle. Because of the mechanical attrition affecting the Porsche 996s in the LMGT category, only two Porsches remained in contention for a victory and Ferrari was unable to challenge the marque. Front suspension problems for the No. 12 Panoz car and an engine failure curtailing the No. 4 Riley & Scott Mk III C's race promoted the No. 88 Prodrive Ferrari to tenth overall.


2003 24 Hours of Le Mans, Race, Morning to early afternoon
Luhr and Maashen's No. 93 AJR Porsche was able to fight with Lieb and later Leo Hindery's No. 87 Orbit car and eventually retake the lead of the LMGT category it had lost when it entered the pit lane for car repairs. An hour and 20 minutes later, Lammers picked up a left-rear puncture, losing control of the No. 15 Racing For Holland car under braking. He spun several times backwards into a gravel trap at Indianapolis corner and damaged a rear wheel.


2003 24 Hours of Le Mans, Race, Morning to early afternoon
The car was pushed back onto the circuit by track marshals and Lammers drove to the pit lane to repair the damage. At the same time, Gunnar Jeannette's No. 11 Panoz LMP01 Evo car locked up and made light contact with the tyre barrier at Arnage corner. Further up the field, Brabham made an unscheduled pit stop in the No. 8 Bentley to undergo a second battery replacement. The change took 3 minutes, 32 seconds and the car returned to the race in second overall.


2003 24 Hours of Le Mans, Race, Morning to early afternoon
Not long after Collins' No. 50 Corvette bowed out of the battle for the LMGTS lead to have its transmission bearing replaced and it was completed in 15 minutes. Lehto's Champion Racing R8 could not take advantage of the No. 8 Bentley's mechanical impairments and lost one additional lap after a spin. At the start of the 18th hour, Saelens in the No. 12 Panoz car lost grip through Mulsanne corner and made left-front contact with a tyre barrier at high speed. Saelens was unhurt but the damage to the car forced its retirement.


2003 24 Hours of Le Mans, Race, Morning to early afternoon
The No. 93 AJR Porsche of Maassen entered the garage with loss of voltage corrected by changing the alternator in six minutes. Maassen returned to the track still leading the LMGT category. Soon after, Wallace's No. 15 Racing for Holland Dome had a flat battery that dropped the car from fifth to eighth overall. Gabbiani's sister No. 16 car had its front-left tyre delaminate and carbon fibre debris was launched from the car's front-left corner. Safety cars were required for the second time as the track needed cleaning and prompted several cars to make pit stops.


2003 24 Hours of Le Mans, Race, Morning to early afternoon
Beretta's No. 11 Panoz car was the main beneficiary from the safety car period and he passed Jonathan Cochet's No. 13 Courage C60 vehicle on the Mulsanne Straight for fifth overall. Towards the end of the 20th hour, the LMP675 class leading Noël del Bello Reynard slowed with a misfiring engine but the car's 35-lap advantage kept it in the category lead. The No. 15 Racing for Holland car of John Bosch returned to seventh when Ayari's No. 18 Courage C60 began leaking fluids at its rear and entered the pit lane for a 22-minute repair.


2003 24 Hours of Le Mans, Race, Morning to early afternoon
With the first four positions stable, attention focused on the battle for fifth place between the No. 11 Panoz LMP01 Evo and the No. 13 Courage C60 cars. The No. 99 XL Racing Ferrari of Gaël Lasoudier had an rear engine bay fire at the PlayStation Chicane, causing the deployment of the safety cars for the third time in the race.


2003 24 Hours of Le Mans, Race, Finish
As the safety car period ended, Max Papis in the No. 11 Panoz LMP01 Evo car caught and passed Stéphan Grégoire's No. 13 Courage C60 vehicle at Tetre Rouge corner. Fellows overtook his Corvette Racing teammate Collins in the final third of the lap for second in LMGTS. Collins retook the position from Fellows two laps later until they made pit stops for fuel, tyres and a change of driver. O'Connell relieved Fellows and returned to second by having a faster stop than Andy Pilgrim.


2003 24 Hours of Le Mans, Race, Finish
The No. 17 Pescarolo Courage 60 car of Jean-Christophe Boullion's had a flash fire when fuel ignited during a pit stop. An intervention from the team's mechanics to extinguish the fire allowed him to continue driving. The Champion Racing Audi of Johansson stalled during a pit stop for tyres, fuel and a driver switch with co-driver Pirro. The fault was rectified by replacing the car's battery at the right-hand corner of its cockpit. It rejoined the track still in third place and ahead of Ara's Team Goh Audi.


2003 24 Hours of Le Mans, Race, Finish
Lammers' No. 15 Racing for Holland Dome car in seventh caught and overtook Gounon's No. 13 Courage Compétition C60 vehicle on the race's final lap to claim sixth overall for his team. In the meantime, Tristan Gommendy crashed at the Indianapolis corner. He drove the No. 16 Racing for Holland car into the pit lane to retire.


2003 24 Hours of Le Mans, Race, Finish
Unhindered in the final hours of the race, Smith took the chequered flag for the No. 7 Bentley, two laps ahead of the No. 8 Bentley of Brabham. Audi, in their first defeat at Le Mans since the 2000 edition, were a further three laps behind in third to win the LMP900 class with Champion Racing's R8 and Team Goh took fourth. It was Smith and Capello's first Le Mans victory and Kristensen's fifth. Kristensen became the first driver in history to win the 24 Hours of Le Mans four times in a row.


2003 24 Hours of Le Mans, Race, Finish
He also equalled Derek Bell's record of five victories and was one behind Jacky Ickx's all-time record of six wins. It was Bentley's sixth overall Le Mans victory and its first since the 1930 race. Prodrive held their ten-lap lead in the LMGTS category, earning Enge, Kox and Davies their first class victories and the first for Ferrari in a GT class since the 1981 edition. Corvette Racing completed the class podium with the No. 50 ahead of the No. 53.


2003 24 Hours of Le Mans, Race, Finish
Porsche took the first six places in the LMGT class with AJR taking the category win on the team's first visit to Le Mans. Orbit Racing and Thierry Perrier were the final two category podium finishers in second and third. Noël del Bello Racing, unchallenged since the night, were victorious in the LMP675 class, 31 laps ahead of the RN Motorsport Zytek and 84 laps in front of Rachel Welter's WR LMP01.


2003 24 Hours of Le Mans, Race classification
The minimum number of laps for classification (70 per cent of the overall winning car's race distance) was 264 laps. Class winners are denoted with bold.


2003 3. divisjon
The 2003 season of the 3. divisjon, the fourth highest association football league for men in Norway.


2003 3. divisjon
22 games were played in 24 groups, with 3 points given for wins and 1 for draws. Twelve teams were promoted to the 2. divisjon through playoff.


2003 4 Nations Cup
The 2003 4 Nations Cup was the eighth playing of the annual women's ice hockey tournament. It was held in Skövde, Sweden, from November 5–9, 2003.


2003 A Lyga
The Lithuanian A Lyga 2003 was the 14th season of top-tier football in Lithuania. The season started on 4 April 2003 and ended on 31 October 2003. 8 teams participated with FBK Kaunas winning the championship.


2003 A3 Champions Cup
The 2003 A3 Champions Cup was first edition of A3 Champions Cup. It was held from February 16 to 22, 2003 in Tokyo, Japan.


2003 AAA Championships
The 2003 AAA Championships was an outdoor track and field competition organised by the Amateur Athletic Association (AAA), held from 25–27 July at Alexander Stadium in Birmingham, England. It was considered the de facto national championships for the United Kingdom.


2003 AAPT Championships
The 2003 AAPT Championships was a men's tennis tournament played on outdoor hard courts in Adelaide in Australia and was part of the International Series of the 2003 ATP Tour. The tournament ran from 30 December 2002 through 5 January 2003. Unseeded Nikolay Davydenko won the singles title.


2003 AAPT Championships, Finals, Doubles
Jeff Coetzee /  Chris Haggard defeated  Max Mirnyi /  Jeff Morrison 2–6, 6–4, 7–6(9–7)


2003 AAPT Championships – Doubles
Wayne Black and Kevin Ullyett were the defending champions but lost in the first round to Alberto Martín and Mariano Zabaleta.


2003 AAPT Championships – Doubles
Jeff Coetzee and Chris Haggard won in the final 2–6, 6–4, 7–6(9–7) against Arnaud Clément and Michaël Llodra.


2003 AAPT Championships – Singles
Tim Henman was the defending champion but did not compete that year.


2003 AAPT Championships – Singles
Nikolay Davydenko won in the final 6–2, 7–6(7–3) against Kristof Vliegen.


2003 ABC Champions Cup
The ABC Champions Cup 2003 was the 14th staging of the ABC Champions Cup, the basketball club tournament of Asian Basketball Confederation. The tournament was held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia between December 21 to 27, 2003.


2003 ABC Championship
The 2003 Asian Basketball Confederation Championship for Men was the qualifying tournament for the Basketball Tournament at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece. The tournament was held in Harbin, China from September 23 to October 1, 2003.


2003 ABC Championship, Qualification
According to the ABC rules, each zone had two places, and the hosts (China) and the best 5 teams of the previous Asian Championship were automatically qualified.


2003 ABC Championship, Qualification
* Withdrew,  Kazakhstan and  Kuwait were given a wild card entry into the championship.


2003 ABC Championship qualification
The 2003 ABC Championship qualification was held in late 2002 and early 2003 with the Gulf region, West Asia, Southeast Asia, East Asia and Middle Asia (Central Asia and South Asia) each conducting tournaments.


2003 ABC Championship qualification, Qualified teams
* Withdrew,  Kazakhstan and  Kuwait were given a wild card entry into the championship.


2003 ABC Championship qualification, East Asia
All the others withdrew, so  Chinese Taipei and  Hong Kong qualified automatically.


2003 ABC Championship qualification, Gulf
The 2002 Gulf Basketball Association Championship is the qualifying tournament for the 2003 ABC Championship. the two best teams excluding Qatar qualifies for 2003 ABC Championship. The tournament was held at Dubai, United Arab Emirates.


2003 ABC Championship qualification, Middle Asia
The 2003 Middle Asia Basketball Championship  is the qualifying tournament for the 2003 ABC Championship. the two best teams qualifies for 2003 ABC Championship. The tournament was held at New Delhi, India.


2003 ABC Championship qualification, Southeast Asia
The 5th Southeast Asia Basketball Association Championship is the qualifying tournament for the 2003 ABC Championship. the two best teams qualifies for 2003 ABC Championship. The tournament was held at Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.


2003 ABC Championship qualification, West Asia
The 2002/2003 West Asia Basketball Association Championship  is the qualifying tournament for the 2003 ABC Championship. the two best teams qualifies for 2003 ABC Championship. The tournament supposed to be held in 3 stages in Jordan, Iran and Iraq in late 2002 and early 2003 but the last round was cancelled.


2003 ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament
The 2003 ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament was a men's tennis tournament played on indoor hard courts at Rotterdam Ahoy in the Netherlands. It was part of the International Series Gold of the 2003 ATP Tour. The tournament ran from 17 February through 23 February 2003. Unseeded Max Mirnyi won the singles title.


2003 ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament
The singles draw featured Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) No. 3, Australian Open quarterfinalist, Tennis Masters Cup and Sydney runner-up Juan Carlos Ferrero, Doha quarterfinalist and Marseille winner Roger Federer and Sydney quarterfinalist and Paris Masters champion Marat Safin. Other seeded players were French Open champion Albert Costa, Wimbledon semifinalist Tim Henman, Sébastien Grosjean, Àlex Corretja and Sjeng Schalken.


2003 ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament, Finals, Doubles
Wayne Arthurs /  Paul Hanley defeated  Roger Federer /  Max Mirnyi 7–6(7–2), 6–2


2003 ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament – Doubles
Roger Federer and Max Mirnyi were the defending champions but lost in the final 7–6(7–4), 6–2 against Wayne Arthurs and Paul Hanley.


2003 ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament – Doubles, Seeds
Champion seeds are indicated in bold text while text in italics indicates the round in which those seeds were eliminated.


2003 ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament – Singles
Nicolas Escudé was the defending champion but lost in the quarterfinals against Sébastien Grosjean.


2003 ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament – Singles
Max Mirnyi won in the final 7–6(7–3), 6–4 against Raemon Sluiter.


2003 ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament – Singles, Seeds
A champion seed is indicated in bold text while text in italics indicates the round in which that seed was eliminated.


2003 ACC Men's Basketball Tournament
The 2003 Atlantic Coast Conference Men's Basketball Tournament took place from March 13–16 in Greensboro, North Carolina, at the Greensboro Coliseum. The 2003 edition marked the 50th ACC Tournament. Duke won the tournament for the fifth straight time, defeating NC State in the championship game for the second year in a row. Duke's Daniel Ewing won the tournament's Most Valuable Player award.


2003 AF2 season
The 2003 AF2 season was the fourth season of the AF2. It was preceded by 2002 and succeeded by 2004. The league champions were the Tulsa Talons, who defeated the Macon Knights in ArenaCup IV. For the first time ever, AF2 uses the six-division alignment (three divisions per conference).


2003 AF2 season, ArenaCup IV
ArenaCup IV was the 2003 edition of the AF2's championship game, in which the National Conference Champions Tulsa Talons defeated the American Conference Champions Macon Knights in Tulsa, Oklahoma by a score of 58 to 40.


2003 AFC Futsal Championship
The 2003 AFC Futsal Championship was held in Tehran and Karaj, Iran from 27 July to 5 August 2003.


2003 AFC Women's Championship
The 2003 AFC Women's Championship was a women's football tournament held in Thailand from 8 to 21 June 2003. It was the 14th holding of the AFC Women's Championship, a tournament for women's national teams from countries affiliated to the Asian Football Confederation.


2003 AFC Women's Championship
The competition was held in Bangkok in the Rajamangala Stadium and in Nakhon Sawan in the Nakhon Sawan Stadium. The tournament was won by the defending champions North Korea women's national football team (Korea DPR). As the championship was also used for qualifying for the FIFA Women's World Cup, North Korea qualified as champions, with China qualifying as runners-up. South Korea as the third-placed team faced another match for qualification.


2003 AFC Women's Championship, Participating teams and structure
Fourteen teams took part in the competition. This included the hosts Thailand and the defending champions North Korea. The teams were split into 3 groups, with the each team playing all the others in the group in a round robin format. At the end of the group stage the four teams with the best results from all the groups who qualified in the 1st 2 spaces in each group qualify to the knockout stage. This is played in the format of a semi-final, a 3rd/4th place match, as well as a final.


2003 AFC Women's Championship, Participating teams and structure
The winners and runners-up of the competition automatically qualify for the FIFA Women's World Cup 2003. The 3rd place team has to compete against a CONCACAF team over home and away matches for a final place in the FIFA Women's World Cup. The runners-up and the 3rd place team were re-berthed to 3rd and 4th place respectively as China, as original host of the World Cup and would automatically qualified to final rounds, got 2nd place.


2003 AFF Futsal Championship
The 2003 AFF Futsal Championship was held in Kuantan, Malaysia from 1 July to 6 July 2003. Cambodia were the original hosts for this edition of the tournament but were unable to get their venue ready in time. Subsequently, the ASEAN Football Federation requested Malaysia to take over as hosts.


2003 AFF Futsal Championship
Defending champions Thailand, have sent a reserve team for this tournament as their main players were left behind to prepare for the AFC Futsal Championship which took place at the end of the month.


2003 AFF Futsal Championship, Goalscorers
The following is the list of goalscorers and the amount each scored in the tournament. It unknown in which games each player scored. Only the given information above for each match is known.


2003 AFF U-18 Youth Championship
The 2003 AFF U-18 Youth Championship was held from 7 June to 18 June 2003 and was co-hosted by Myanmar and Vietnam. This was the inaugural edition of the tournament.


2003 AFL Grand Final
The 2003 AFL Grand final was an Australian rules football game contested between the Brisbane Lions and the Collingwood Football Club, held at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in Melbourne on 27 September 2003. It was the 107th annual grand final of the Australian Football League (formerly the Victorian Football League), staged to determine the premiers for the 2003 AFL season. The match, attended by 79,451 spectators, was won by Brisbane by a margin of 50 points, marking the club's third premiership victory, all won consecutively from 2001 to 2003.


2003 AFL Grand Final, Background
Brisbane had appeared in the AFL Grand Final for the past two years, winning both contests. Collingwood had competed against Brisbane in the previous year's grand final, losing by 9 points.


2003 AFL Grand Final, Background
At the conclusion of the home and away season, Port Adelaide had finished first on the AFL ladder with 18 wins and 4 losses, winning their second successive McClelland Trophy. Collingwood finished second with 15 wins and 7 losses, and Brisbane was third with 14 wins, 7 losses and a draw. The two sides faced each other in a low-scoring qualifying final won by Collingwood, 9.12 (66) d. 7.9 (51).


2003 AFL Grand Final, Background
Brisbane comfortably defeated Adelaide in its semi-final by 46 points; and then both clubs had comfortable preliminary final victories, Collingwood dominating throughout its match against Port Adelaide to win by 44 points; and Brisbane kicking away from Sydney with a six goals to nil final quarter, also winning by 44 points.


2003 AFL Grand Final, Background
In the week prior to the grand final, Collingwood forward Anthony Rocca was suspended during the week for an elbow to the head of Port Adelaide's Brendon Lade player during the preliminary final; Rocca had played every game of the year and kicked 45 goals, and had also been one of Collingwood's best in the previous year's grand final, and his suspension was considered a major blow to the Magpies' chances; Tristen Walker took Rocca's place in the team. Brisbane's had numerous key players under injury clouds, including captain Michael Voss with an injured knee, Nigel Lappin with broken ribs and both Alastair Lynch and Martin Pike with hamstring injuries, but all four ended up playing.


2003 AFL Grand Final, Background
The build-up was further magnified due to the Lions' chance of being the first team since Melbourne in the 1950s to win three successive premierships. Attention was also focussed on whether the Magpies would avenge their close loss to the Lions in the previous year's grand final. In the week leading up to the grand final, Collingwood's Nathan Buckley was awarded the Brownlow Medal, which was tied between Buckley, Sydney's Adam Goodes and Adelaide's Mark Ricciuto.


2003 AFL Grand Final, Background
The match attendance of 79,451 spectators was the smallest grand Final attendance at the MCG since the 1946 VFL Grand Final, owing to a part of the grandstands having been demolished to make way for the construction of new seating at the ground for the 2006 Commonwealth Games.


2003 AFL Grand Final, Match summary, First quarter
The Lions dominated the Magpies and led throughout the majority of the match, gaining the lead inside the first two minutes and never relinquishing it. The Lions led 5.5 (35) to Collingwood's 3.3 (21) at quarter time.


2003 AFL Grand Final, Match summary, Second quarter
Two early Brisbane goals extended the margin to 25 points five minutes into the second quarter; and while Alan Didak was able to peg one back for Collingwood in the 9th minute, a flurry of four goals to Brisbane in the latter part of the quarter opened a game-winning 42 points half time lead, from which Collingwood never seriously challenged.


2003 AFL Grand Final, Match summary, Third quarter
Collingwood won the third quarter, kicking two early goals to bring the margin back to 30 points, but overall after kicking 5.0 (30) to Brisbane's 3.5 (23) for the quarter, the difference was still a nearly insurmountable 35 points at three-quarter time.