ETCC 2003 - Monza: 
BMW Team Deutschland’s duo of Jörg and Dirk Müller, set a stunning pace in the practice sessions. Driving in close formation around a track on which aspiration makes the difference, the two German drivers helped each other to clock the fastest laps by far: 2:00.378 for Jörg, 2:00.681 for Dirk during the first session. In the second session they swapped position at the top, and again they were the only drivers capable to break the 2:01. barrier.
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Nicola Larini emerged as the fastest Alfa Romeo driver, ranking third with a lap in 2:01.102, just ahead of his team-mate James Thompson, fourth in 2:01.269. In the second session Yvan Muller created a surprise, setting the fifth-fastest time in his SEAT Toledo Cupra, with a lap in 2:01.456, nearly improving by two seconds his first practice time. Fisichella also had a massive 2.4-second improvement between the two sessions, climbing to 11th position, but the F1 driver went off at the Parabolica during a further attempt. Alessandro Zanardi’s highly expected debut, was postponed to the second free practice, due to a problem to the electronic clutch control on his BMW Team Italy-Spain’s car. Problems solved, Zanardi completed his first laps in a racing weekend since two years. He consistently improved his lap times and eventually set the 14th fastest time at 2:02.247, with a gap of only 1.4 seconds from Dirk Müller. ART Enginering withdrew Rickard Rydell’s Volvo S60 from the meeting. “Rickard’s engine had a major problem in Estoril, and it was not possible to repair it in time, due to lack of some critical components,†explained Volvo Motorsport chief Olle Odsell. “The only available spare engine is a test engine, that is not fully competitive.â€
The first qualifying session for Sunday's final race of the 2003 season saw the nr 5 Force One Chrysler Viper dominate the session, being the only car to go under the 1:44 barrier, with a time of 1:43.559, 0.375 seconds ahead of the nr 22 BMS Scuderia Italia Ferrari 550 Maranello of Gollin and Cappellari. In third place, the nr 2 Konrad Motorsport Saleen S7-R, ahead of the nr 21 Care Racing Ferrari. In N-GT, the nr 61 EMKA Racing Porsche set the best time with a lap of 1:50.221, ahead of the nr 52 JMB Racing Ferrari and the nr 50 Freisinger Motorsport Porsche 996 GT3-RS.
