Model Winnie Harlow wasn't to blame for the early waving of the chequered flag, the FIA's Charlie Whiting has confirmed.
Harlow, a close friend of Lewis Hamilton, was given the honour of waving the chequered flag to end the race during Sunday's Canadian Grand Prix, but did so a lap early, which meant the race was classified on lap 68, rather than 70.
Although it had no bearing on the result, Daniel Ricciardo did lose his fastest lap which he set on lap 69, with Red Bull team-mate Max Verstappen instead taking that record.
After the race, Whiting clarified that Harlow was told when to the wave the flag and it was down to miscommunication between the 'starter' and race control.
"The chequered flag was shown a lap early because there was a miscommunication between the start platform and the guy that they call the starter, the guy that starts and finishes the races," Whiting explained during a media briefing.
"He thought it was the last lap, he asked race control to confirm it, they confirmed it. They thought he was making a statement when in fact he was asking a question.
“He told the flag waver [Harlow] to wave it a lap early, so it wasn’t anything to do with the fact it was a celebrity flag waver."
Whiting insists the use of celebrity flag wavers won't be reviewed, but the process as a whole might need looking at.
"The celebrity was not to blame, so I don’t think that is anything we need to consider," he added.
"We might need to look at other things, like the amount of people that get up there. Sometimes that can be quite difficult."
Harlow took the incident in good faith, later tweeting: "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!"
