Winnie Harlow, a Canadian model, had the job of waving the chequered flag at the end of lap 70 yesterday. However, it was waved at the end of lap 69 and the mistake was because of a miscommunication between the starter guy and race control.
Much debate has continued, but Charlie Whiting has put us all out of the dark by clearing up the issue which now forms part of Harlow’s Wikipedia page less than 12 hours after.
“The chequered flag was shown lap early because there was a miscommunication between the start platform and the guy that they call the starter,” said Whiting.
“He thought it was the last lap, he asked race control to confirm it and they confirmed it. They thought he was making a statement and he just showed it a lap further, it’s as simple as that.”
The regulations state that the result stands at the end of the previous lap which in this case was lap 68. The last time this happened was in 2014 at the end of the Chinese Grand Prix and Whiting when on to confirm the FIA need to change their procedures to prevent it happening again.
“We need to review procedures, and make sure we have a very simple procedure for every circuit,” added Whiting.
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