The 2003 24 Hours of Le Mans () was a non-championship 24-hour automobile endurance race from 14 to 15 June 2003 at the Circuit de la Sarthe near Le Mans, France for teams of three drivers each entering Le Mans Prototype and Grand Touring cars before approximately 220,000 people. It was the race's 71st edition, as organised by the automotive group, the Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO) since 1923. A test day was held seven weeks prior to the race on 4 May.
A Bentley Speed 8 shared by Dane Tom Kristensen, Italian Rinaldo Capello and Brit Guy Smith started from pole position after Kristensen set the fastest overall lap time in the second qualifying session. The team won the race by two laps over Mark Blundell, David Brabham and Johnny Herbert's sister Bentley. It was Capello and Smith's first Le Mans victory and Kristensen's fifth. Bentley's sixth overall victory was their first since the 1930 edition. Champion Racing's Audi R8 of JJ Lehto, Emanuele Pirro and Stefan Johansson in third overall won the Le Mans Prototype 900 (LMP900) category from Audi Sport Japan Team Goh's entry of Seiji Ara, Jan Magnussen and Marco Werner.
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. In a Ferrari 550-GTS Maranello, the Veloqx Prodrive Racing team of Jamie Davies, Tomáš Enge and Peter Kox won the Le Mans Grand Touring Sport (LMGTS) class, giving Ferrari its first GT victory since the 1981 race. Corvette Racing finished second and third in the category with their two C5-Rs ten laps behind. Porsche took the first six places in the Le Mans Grand Touring (LMGT) category, with an Alex Job Racing (AJR) 911-GT3 RS driven by Sascha Maassen, Emmanuel Collard and Lucas Luhr winning on the team's debut.
Background and regulation changes
The 71st edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans took place from 14 to 15 June 2003 at the Circuit de la Sarthe road racing circuit close to Le Mans, France, from 14 to 15 June. The race was first held in 1923 after the automotive journalist Charles Faroux, the Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO) general secretary Georges Durand and the industrialist Emile Coquile agreed to hold a test of vehicle reliability and durability. 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.
The ACO reduced the overall 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 following the 2002 race. It permitted the use of carbon fibre chassis in the LMGTS class as well as the use of original automatic and semi-automatic gearboxes in a homologated road vehicle entered in the LMGTS and LMGT categories. Every engine had air restrictors installed and boost pressures were adjusted to try to achieve performance parity across all four categories. At a public meeting, drivers were told that crossing two wheels of a car over the white line denoting the circuit's boundaries and onto the kerbing would result in a stop-and-go penalty that would increase in severity if the transgression was repeated.
Entries
By the entry deadline on 20 February 2003, the ACO had received 72 applications (31 for the Prototype classes and 41 for the Grand Touring categories). It issued 50 race invitations, with entries divided between the LMP900, LMGTP, LMP675, LMGTS, and LMGT classes.
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. Because entries were limited to teams, squads were not permitted to switch cars from last year to the next. They were allowed to change categories as long as the car's make did not change and the ACO approved the switch. Audi Sport Team Joest in both LMP categories, Corvette Racing in the LMGTS class and The Racer's Group (TRG) in the LMGT category received automatic entries based on class victories at the 2002 24 Hours of Le Mans. Audi Sport North America and Corvette also qualified after winning their respective classes at the Petit Le Mans, as did Alex Job Racing (AJR) in the LMGT category. However, Audi declined their automatic invitations after it withdrew its factory operations and forwent its defence of the overall victory.