Stroll was the first to see the checkered flag at the finish in Bahrain

During the first round of the season in Bahrain, British TV presenter Jeremy Clarkson was tasked with taking the checkered flag at the finish of the race. He accomplished the mission entrusted to him brilliantly, but it later turned out that the first driver to whom Jeremy gave the green light was not the winner Max Verstappen, but Lance Stroll.

“I came to the Formula 1 race in Bahrain and after the start one of the organizers approached me and asked if I wanted to wave the checkered flag at the finish? – Jeremy Clarkson describes the details of that evening in a column in The Sun newspaper. – Considering that Neymar and Kevin Hart were among the guests, I was extremely flattered. And even though I had already had a few glasses of beer and possibly wine by that time, I replied, “I want to.” What can go wrong?

With about ten laps to go, I went from my viewing balcony at one end of the pit lane to the small tower at the other end of the pit lane, where they wave the checkered flag.

Nothing complicated – I had enough time. This would be true if I could walk straight. Luckily I reached the tower just as Max Verstappen started the last lap.

I was a little out of breath at that point, but even I had enough time to cross the pit lane in the time it takes a Formula 1 car to complete a lap. And at that moment, when I was in the right place, my cheerful friend Lisa announced that she had to go to the toilet.

“I understand,” I replied. – But what should we do? Should I ask Max to park somewhere while you do business?

Despite the fact that Max would have won the race even in this case, we decided not to take the risk, climbed the tower and I took the checkered flag in my hands. And he waited for Max to appear from the last corner. Generally easy.

But it was dark and it took me a while to realize, ‘Is this Red Bull?’ At that moment the car flew past me and I realized: “ambush! It’s Red Bull! And I started waving the flag as desperately as I could when I realized it wasn’t Red Bull after all.

I was told that Max Verstappen had officially won the race, but who saw me take the checkered flag first? Well, I checked the tape and I think it was Lance Stroll.”