The bottom 6 teams in the 2003 Constructors' Championship were entitled to run a third car in free practice on Friday. These drivers drove on Friday but did not compete in qualifying or the race.
After the Belgian Grand Prix, Michael Schumacher was already crowned driver world champion. He led the drivers' championship unassailably with 40 points ahead of Rubens Barrichello and 63 points ahead of Jenson Button. After the Hungarian Grand Prix, Ferrari was confirmed as constructors' world champion. They held an unassailable lead in the constructors' championship with 125 points ahead of Renault and 131 points ahead of BAR-Honda.
In the first qualifying, in which the starting positions for the second qualifying were determined, Montoya achieved the fastest time. Barrichello was fastest in qualifying and secured pole position with a time of 1:20.089 minutes. Montoya came second ahead of Michael Schumacher.
In the first part of qualifying (which did not count towards grid positions), Montoya lapped Monza in his Williams FW26 at an average speed of 262.242 km/h (162.950 mph), which at the time, was the fastest lap recorded at Monza, and the highest average speed over one lap in Formula One. These records would stand until the 2018 edition.
The morning of the race was quite rainy and at the time of departure there were still wet parts of the circuit, which made tire selection difficult. At the beginning of the race, Alonso overtakes Barrichello; while Schumacher drops to 15th position after an incident. However, against all odds, Barrichello manages to regain third position after stopping on lap 5 to put on dry tires and Barrichello climbs back into first place.
In the Minardi pit garage, the car of Gianmaria Bruni caught fire after fuel escaped from the hose onto the hot bodywork during a routine pit-stop, and it was put out without any serious injury. Bruni inhaled some of the extinguishant and was having trouble breathing and so the team decided to retire the car.[3]
Montoya's teammate Antônio Pizzonia reached a top speed of 369.9 km/h (229.8 mph), the fastest speed recorded in Formula One at the time (it was to be exceeded by Montoya at the 2005 edition).
^Privateer Ferrari entry in 1950 French Grand Prix, which is often a source of incorrect count for their races as a team (as opposed to as a manufacturer) doesn't count towards the team's participations.
