The 2002 United States Grand Prix (formally the 2002 SAP United States Grand Prix) was a Formula One motor race held on September 29, 2002, at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Speedway, Indiana, in front of about 125,000 spectators. It was the 16th and penultimate round of the 2002 Formula One World Championship and the third United States Grand Prix at Indianapolis. Ferrari driver Rubens Barrichello won the 73-lap race after starting second. His teammate Michael Schumacher finished second and McLaren's David Coulthard was third.
Michael Schumacher, the World Drivers' Champion, started from pole position after setting the fastest qualifying lap in the one-hour qualifying session. Barrichello started second alongside his teammate, with Coulthard starting third. The first three drivers maintained their positions into the first corner. Michael Schumacher led for most of the race, only ceding it to Barrichello during both pit stop cycles. On the final lap, Michael Schumacher led Barrichello by half a second before allowing his teammate to catch up to him through the final corner and draw alongside him. Barrichello won by 0.011 seconds over Michael Schumacher, his fourth victory of the season and fifth of his career.
The race result secured Barrichello second in the World Drivers' Championship, with Williams driver Juan Pablo Montoya in third position. Montoya had moved three more championship points clear of fourth-placed teammate Ralf Schumacher With one race left in the season, Williams secured second position from McLaren in the World Constructors' Championship, while Ferrari broke McLaren's record for the most constructors' points scored in a season.
Background
left|thumb|The [[Indianapolis Motor Speedway, where the race was held]]
The 2002 United States Grand Prix was the penultimate round of the 2002 Formula One World Championship, held on 29 September 2002, at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway (IMS) road course in Speedway, Indiana. The Porsche Supercup and the Ferrari Challenge held support races during the weekend. Participating in the Ferrari Challenge, Mandy Williams Reimert was the only woman to race in any of the events that weekend, and consequently, the first woman to race on the speedway's infield road course – which had been inaugurated in 2000.
Before the race, both the World Drivers' Championship and World Constructors' Championship were already won, with Ferrari driver Michael Schumacher having secured the World Drivers' Championship five rounds earlier at the and Ferrari took the World Constructors' Championship two races after that at the , with Williams too many championship points behind to be able to catch them. Rubens Barrichello had to score three championship points in Indianapolis to secure second in the World Drivers' Championship.
Following the on 15 September, several teams tested their cars at European circuits to prepare for the race at Indianapolis. The Williams and McLaren teams tested for four days at the Circuit de Catalunya in Spain before being joined for three of those days by British American Racing (BAR) and Jaguar. McLaren test driver Alexander Wurz led the first and second days, regular driver David Coulthard the third day, and BAR's Oliver Panis the final day. Renault and Sauber tested at the Silverstone Circuit in Britain for three days and Jordan two of those days. Sauber led all three days through Felipe Massa (day one), Ferrari did four days of tyre and electronics testing at the Mugello Circuit in Italy, joined by Minardi on the second day. Ferrari test driver Luciano Burti drove three F2002 cars at the Fiorano Circuit on 19 September.
The IMS asphalt pavement was diamond grounded to smooth out several bumps and improve grip for racing vehicles to prevent bottoming out. A pit wall was installed to isolate the circuit from the pit lane entry. The Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA; Formula One's governing body) agreed to keep turn 13's energy-absorbing Steel And Foam Energy Reduction (SAFER) barrier, which had been installed in all four turns prior to the 2002 Indianapolis 500 that May. Turn 13's barrier was expanded to accommodate racing cars travelling clockwise. Sauber team principal Peter Sauber signed their 2003 driver Frentzen to replace Massa for the Grand Prix so that Massa could avoid serving a ten-place grid penalty from his final starting position imposed by the stewards for an avoidable accident with Jaguar's Pedro de la Rosa at the preceding Italian Grand Prix; the wording of the regulations meant the penalty was imposed not on the team but on the driver at the next event not in the driver's next race. Renault's Jenson Button was cleared to race. During testing, he experienced dizzy spells caused by an inner ear infection that affected his balance. Arrows did not enter the race, their third in succession in 2002, because the team continued to be affected by financial trouble.
All teams brought developments for their 2003 cars to Indianapolis. McLaren introduced a new front suspension with the strut attached directly to the hub carrier rather than the lower triangle. BAR supplied lighter-weight Brembo brake calipers than the standard model. Honda provided a new advanced qualifying engine to BAR and Jordan. Heavy rain fell on the IMS overnight, but it quickly subsided and ceased an hour before the first practice session began. When the tyre rubber was removed from the circuit, it became more abrasive than expected. The circuit was slightly moist in the first session with a puddle at turn nine but had dried fully (except the grass) by the second. Michael Schumacher lapped fastest almost halfway through the first session with a time of 1:15.188.
Barrichello lost control of his Ferrari on the grass at the entry of the banked turn 13 owing to a loss of pressure in the left rear tyre after 29 minutes. He went up, causing moderate damage to his car's left side striking a concrete wall sideways around way from the SAFER barrier. The left-rear wheel and front wing were removed, while the left-front wheel was disconnected but held in place by wheel tethers. Barrichello sustained bruising but exited his car that was in the circuit's centre unaided. Officials stopped practice for 18 minutes, Michael Schumacher set the day's fastest lap of 1:13.548 with 17 minutes remaining. Six minutes into the session, Sato locked the wheels on the wet grass and spun off the track, colliding into the turn eight tyre barrier. Michael Schumacher maintained his overall lead, with a lap time of 1:11.262 19 minutes into the session. He was almost half a second faster than teammate Barrichello in second. Coulthard, Montoya, Räikkönen, Ralf Schumacher, Irvine, Trulli and Toyota's Mika Salo followed in the top ten. Michael Schumacher accomplished a sweep of being the quickest driver in every practice session with a lap of 1:11.158 set seven minutes before practice ended. Räikkönen spun his McLaren, breaking its front suspension hitting the tyre barrier between turns nine and ten just before practice ended. Michael Schumacher won his sixth pole position of the season and 49th of his career after setting a new track lap record of 1:10.790 on his second quick lap. Schumacher was joined on the front row by teammate Barrichello, who was nearly 0.3 seconds slower after struggling to get his Ferrari properly balanced and making a mistake at turn one on his first run. Coulthard took third from Montoya on his final lap, losing time being late accelerate out of turn 13. Sato qualified 15th after being made to use a lower-specification Honda engine. On his final run, Salo in 19th had full loss of car grip and the wheel speed sensor failed.
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Warm-up
A 30-minute warm-up session took place in sunny weather on the morning of the race. At the start of the session, participants did initial installation laps in their spare and race vehicles. Michael Schumacher lapped fastest at 1:13.183 seven minutes before warm-up ended. Coulthard's race vehicle experienced a slight fuel leak, so he swapped to the spare McLaren setup for teammate Räikkönen during warm-up, and the mechanics altered the car to suit him. Before the race, the weather was sunny, with the air temperature at and the track temperature at . When the red lights went out to begin the race, Michael Schumacher held his lead into the first corner. Behind him, Barrichello, wearing a corset under his racing overalls, Ralf Schumacher passed his slow-starting teammate Montoya for third place after a better start. Salo made the best start in the field, moving from 19th to 16th by the end of the first lap, while Panis lost five positions over the same distance.
thumb|[[Ralf Schumacher was involved in a collision with his teammate Juan Pablo Montoya on the second lap in which the rear wing was removed from his Williams car.]]
At the end of the first lap, Michael Schumacher led his teammate Barrichello by 0.9 seconds, with Coulthard in third. On the outside, Montoya attempted to brake later than Ralf Schumacher, only for his teammate to lose control of his vehicle's rear during braking after striking the inside kerb while the former entered the corner on an wider outside radius and was able to drive through at the same speed. As Montoya passed, Ralf Schumacher was on a tighter trajectory and locked his brakes and collided with his right rear wheel, sending both cars onto the grass and Montoya's car bounced. Because of the collision, Montoya fell to seventh place. The crash elevated Trulli, Räikkönen, and Villeneuve to higher-paying positions. Montoya closed and passed Räikkönen on the inside for sixth on the main straight into turn one on lap 17. Trulli made his first and only pit stop from fourth on the same lap and fell to seventh. Michael Schumacher decided to slow in the final two corners to allow Barrichello to close in further despite being instructed otherwise, Barrichello, who was initially hesitant about being alongside his teammate, The 0.011-second margin of victory was the second-closest in Formula One history after Peter Gethin won the 1971 Italian Grand Prix by 0.01 seconds over Ronnie Peterson.
Coulthard finished third, Montoya fourth, the same place he started in, Trulli fifth, and Villeneuve sixth in the last points-paying position. Fisichella was seventh, having inconsistent tyres that made his car loose. Button in eighth was fast on the main straight but slow in the infield due to his wing settings. Heidfeld (who had more frontal understeer before his second pit stop making his car difficult to drive) and Irvine completed the top ten. Sato, in 11th place, had blistered tyres and a loose car. Panis finished 12th, owing to mechanical problems in the second half of the race. Michael Schumacher, who was reportedly angry over finishing second, praised his team's strategy and his car, "I think the strategy we used, two stops in the end was supposed to be by about ten seconds faster. But would we have been stuck behind, then our strategy could have been a problem. So, all in all, we did the right thing at the right time." Michael Schumacher stated Barrichello deserved to win but denied it was pre-planned, "We have always supported each other. I thought today was a great opportunity to finish equal, to go together over the line, but we failed." He was indecisive on saying whether he was trying to give Barrichello the victory or organise a dead heat finish.
Team principals agreed that Ferrari made an error. Jordan team owner Eddie Jordan compared the staged finish to the end of golf's Ryder Cup, which Europe won, and argued that dead heats were impossible given modern technology's accuracy. BAR head David Richards described it as Ferrari "covering up for a complete cock-up" and called it "showmanship". Formula One supremo Bernie Ecclestone believed Michael Schumacher should have admitted his error in the post-race press conference. IMS president Tony George hoped that the finish would increase interest in Formula One in the United States as it got people talking about the Grand Prix.
Williams technical director Patrick Head did not assign blame for the second-lap collision between his team's drivers, but he heavily criticised them. Montoya said that his teammate Ralf Schumacher made an error that forced him off the track. Ralf Schumacher argued there was a lack of space for Montoya to pass him on the outside and said he would watch television coverage to get another perspective of the crash. Trulli was delighted to finish fifth and praised his strategy, "Very happy. Good race, good start and good result in the end, thanks to the car's reliability". Villeneuve said he had "a good race" despite scoring one championship point for finishing sixth, "The team did a great job. It was a good weekend. We were competitive. That's what matters."
Michael Schumacher maintained his lead in the World Drivers' Championship with 134 championship points. who secured second in the championship. McLaren remained in third while Renault and Sauber continued to battle for fourth with one round remaining in the season.
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Championship standings after the race
;Drivers' Championship standings
{| class="wikitable" style="font-size: 85%;"
|-
! scope="col" |
! scope="col" |
! scope="col" | Driver
! scope="col" | Points
|-
| 10px
|align="center"| 1
| Michael Schumacher*
| 134
|-
| 10px
|align="center"| 2
| Rubens Barrichello
| 71
|-
| 10px
|align="center"| 3
| Juan Pablo Montoya
| 47
|-
| 10px
|align="center"| 4
| Ralf Schumacher
| 42
|-
| 10px
|align="center"| 5
| David Coulthard
|| 41
|-
!colspan=4|Sources:
|}
;Constructors' Championship standings
{|class="wikitable" style="font-size: 85%;"
|-
! scope="col" |
! scope="col" |
! scope="col" | Constructor
! scope="col" | Points
|-
| 10px
|align="center"| 1
| Ferrari*
| 205
|-
| 10px
|align="center"| 2
| Williams-BMW
| 89
|-
| 10px
|align="center"| 3
| McLaren-Mercedes
| 61
|-
| 10px
|align="center"| 4
| Renault
| 22
|-
| 10px
|align="center"| 5
| Sauber-Petronas
| 11
|-
!colspan=4|Sources: