Winnie Harlow deflects blame for premature Formula One flag wave

Winnie Harlow has blamed race officials for her Formula One flag blunder.
Model Winnie, a close friend of F1 star Lewis Hamilton, was given the honour of waving the chequered flag to signal the end of the race at the Canadian Grand Prix on Sunday (10Jun18), but she waved it prematurely.
Regulations state that if the flag is waved too early, the race is over as of the last lap completed, meaning Sunday’s race finished with 68 laps rather than the intended 70.
Shifting the blame to a race official, Winnie laughed off the mistake on Instagram.
“WHEN THEY TELL YOU TO WAVE THE FLAG A LAP TOO EARLY! You had one job, sir!!! Hahaha but so grateful everyone was safe today and no one got hurt for this! @f1,” she captioned an image of her posing with the flag next to an F1 worker. In the text, Winnie added a crying face, two knife and three flag emojis, as well as praying hands and champagne glasses further down in the message.
She added on Twitter: “IT WASNT ME” *Shaggy Voice* when they tell you to wave the flag a lap too early but I’m so grateful no one was hurt!”
The premature finish to the race didn’t affect winner Sebastian Vettel, who maintained racing speed for the final lap, despite noticing the flag had been waved too early.
“Fortunately, I had a lap count in the car, and the pit board was accurate,” the Ferrari driver said. “But if you lose radio and maybe the pit board is not there, then you back off. Then being in the lead, you hope all the others back off as well.
“I think it’s probably not a question for us. I was worried. I told them on the last lap so that people don’t jump on the track, waving flags and celebrating, because we’re still going at full pace. I don’t know what happened.”