Formula 1: Early checkered flag highlights Canadian Grand Prix

By Asher Fair | Jun 10, 2018

MONTREAL, QC - JUNE 10: Race winner Sebastian Vettel of Germany and Ferrari (Photo by Dan Istitene/Getty Images) /

The highlight of the seventh race of the 2018 Formula 1 season, the Canadian Grand Prix, arguably took place when the checkered flag flew too soon.

The 2018 Canadian Grand Prix, the seventh race of the 21-race 2018 Formula 1 season, was scheduled to last for 70 laps around the 14-turn, 2.710-mile (4.361-kilometer) Circuit Gilles Villeneuve on Parc Jean-Drapeau in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

The race did last for the scheduled 70-lap distance, but only 68 laps ended up being scored as officially having been completed a result of a blunder with the checkered flag.

Winnie Harlow, a supermodel and a friend of four-time Formula 1 champion Lewis Hamilton who was attending the race as a guest of Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport, waved the checkered flag with one lap to go in the race.

Here is a video of her doing so.

She claimed on Twitter that she was instructed to do so.

https://twitter.com/winnieharlow/status/1005915164821123073

Because of the fact that Harlow did wave the checkered flag one lap early, the race was ended and the results were based on the running order of the previous lap. The race effectively ended after 68 of its 70 scheduled laps.

As Harlow stated in her tweet, no one was hurt, which was the number one concern since drivers tend to slow down after they pass the checkered flag, and rightfully so seeing as how it rarely flies at the wrong time. With some drivers knowing and some not knowing that the checkered flag flew prematurely, several potential disasters were thankfully avoided.

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However, there were two minor ramifications of this incident. Haas’ Kevin Magnussen finished the 70-lap race in 14th place behind Sahara Force India’s Sergio Perez in 13th, but because the race was scored officially as of the end of lap 68 and Magnussen was still ahead of Perez at the time, Magnussen came away from the race with a 13th place finish while Perez came away with a 14th place finish.

Aston Martin Red Bull Racing’s Daniel Ricciardo recorded the fastest lap of the race on lap 70, but that lap ended up not officially counting because of the checkered flag blunder. His teammate, Max Verstappen, ended up officially recording the fastest lap of the race, which could make things interesting within the team since they have been known to financially reward their drivers when they record the fastest lap of the race.

The last time this sort of incident occurred was when Hamilton took the checkered flag one lap early when it was mistakenly flow at that time during the 2014 Chinese Grand Prix. As a result of this blunder, the race was scored as having been completed at the end of lap 54 as opposed to at the end of the scheduled 56-lap distance.

Next: Top 10 most unbreakable records across Formula One, NASCAR and IndyCar

It certainly did not take long for the pace car crash at the second race of IndyCar’s Chevrolet Dual in Detroit last Sunday to no longer be the most recent blunder involving a celebrity performing an action regularly done by a race official.

In that race, General Motors executive Mark Reuss crashed the pace car in the second turn of the 14-turn, 2.35-mile temporary street circuit on the streets of Belle Isle in Detroit, Michigan. What, if anything, will happen next, and if something crazy along these lines does happen, when will it occur and it what racing series? It really is anybody’s guess at this point.

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