Model Winnie Harlow blamed race officials after she brought a premature end to the Canadian Grand Prix.

Harlow, a close friend of Lewis Hamilton, unwittingly waved the chequered flag with one lap of the Montreal race still remaining.

“When they tell you to wave the flag a lap too early,” the 23-year-old said in a post on Instagram. “You had one job sir!

“So grateful everyone was safe today and no one got hurt.”

Harlow, here in Montreal as a guest of Formula One, waved the flag on the 69th of the 70-lap race. Her error meant the race was cut short by two laps, but did not affect the result.

Sebastian Vettel, who claimed a dominant lights-to-flag victory, recognised that the flag had been issued too early.

“Tell them not to wave the chequered flag when it’s not done yet,” Vettel said over the Ferrari team radio.

Whoops.

Later he added: “I told my team on the last lap so people would not jump on the track to celebrate.

“Some of the marshals were already celebrating. They peaked a bit early.”

Vettel leads Hamilton in the championship by one point after the Briton crossed the line a disappointing fifth.

Luckily for Harlow and Formula 1, nothing was majorly damaged by the rookie mistake, but it seems like she's passing the blame off onto the race directors, rather than herself.

Having said that, she would have been instructed to wave the flag when she did, so the mistake is firmly in the hands of the race directors'.

After the Grand Prix in Canada, Vettel sits top of the Drivers' Championship on 121 points, the mere one ahead of Mercedes rival Hamilton.

After finishing second in Montreal, Valtteri Bottas completes the top three, sitting on 86 points, two ahead of in-form driver Daniel Ricciardo.