The 2002 United States Grand Prix (formally the 2002 SAP United States Grand Prix) was a Formula One motor race held on 29 September 2002 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Speedway, Indiana.
Background
The race was noted as one of the rare times in which Bernd Mayländer was unable to drive the Safety Car, resulting in Damien Faulkner taking over the role for one race. With both season titles already in Ferrari's grasp, promoters for the race urged fans to come "see history in the making" and described five-time World Champion Michael Schumacher as "a sports legend...one of the greatest racing drivers...of all time."
This was the only race where F1 Digital+ graphics were available free on the normal channels, such as ITV in the United Kingdom, TPI in Indonesia and on ABC in the United States (the four F1 races ABC aired that season also used F1 Digital+ graphics).
Practice and qualifying
Despite heavy rain early Friday morning, the track was dry for the first practice and remained that way all weekend. On his first lap, Barrichello became the first Formula 1 driver in three years of running at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway to hit the concrete wall in the oval section of the track. As he was about to finish his first lap, his left rear tire lost pressure and the car was flung into the outer wall at the top of the main straight, ripping off the left rear corner and front wing. Barrichello's car missed the energy-absorbing Steel And Foam Energy Reduction (SAFER) barrier that had been installed in front of the concrete wall in all of the oval turns the previous May. The Ferrari went across the grass at the bottom of Turn 13, up the banking, and hit the bare concrete wall at the beginning of the straight. Schumacher topped the charts in every practice session. Eddie Irvine, fresh off a podium finish at the Italian GP, showed promise for Jaguar by posting the second best time on Friday, just ahead of the two McLarens, as Williams struggled to get in the top 10.
On Saturday, Schumacher set a new qualifying record of 1:10.790. Coulthard edged Montoya for third spot on his last lap by one one-thousandth of a second. Williams took fourth (Montoya) and fifth (Ralf Schumacher), while Irvine could do no better than thirteenth.
Qualifying classification
Race
Rubens Barrichello took the win by 0.011 seconds from teammate Michael Schumacher, with the two Ferrari drivers switching positions in the final few metres of the race after Schumacher attempted to stage a dead heat with his teammate at the finish. It was the smallest margin of victory in an American Grand Prix, and the closest margin in a Formula One race since the introduction of timing to the nearest thousandth of a second.
It was Ferrari's eighth one-two finish of the season. Barrichello said "To win, it was very, very, very good... I got to the last corner, I didn't know what to do and nothing has been said. Michael was just very kind to, you know, let us finish equally. I guess I pointed a little bit in front, but, you know, what can we say?" Schumacher said "The end of the race was not planned... We tried to cross the line together but failed by a tiny bit and in fact we did not know who had won until we got out of the cars. I just felt Rubens deserved to win this race."
The Ferrari team had stated before the weekend that their drivers would not be subject to team orders in the race. From the start, Schumacher led Barrichello and, apart from a brief stint before Coulthard's only pit stop, they completely separated themselves from the rest of the field. The gap between the two leaders varied from one to four seconds.