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Lando Norris said he “made a fool” of himself in colliding with McLaren team-mate Oscar Piastri in the Canadian Grand Prix.

The 25-year-old Briton ran into the back of Piastri as they battled in the closing stages of the race, and Norris’ mistake has left him 22 points behind the Australian in their fight for the championship.

Norris, with use of the DRS overtaking aid giving him a straight-line speed advantage, clipped the back of Piastri’s car as he tried to grab the inside line into Turn One.

But Piastri had not left the space for the move to come off. Norris’ front wing and right-front wheel hit the back of the rival McLaren and broke his suspension. Piastri was able to continue without damage.

Norris said: “I didn’t expect to pass Oscar on the outside into Turn One. It’s just, I should never have gone for it, I guess is my complete hindsight thing.

“I thought he was starting to drift a little bit to the right, so I thought I had a small opportunity to go to the left. But it was way too much risk, especially on my team-mate.

“So, happy nothing happened to him. I paid the price for my mistake.”

Norris had dived for the inside at the hairpin and briefly grabbed the position as both were challenging Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli for the final podium position behind winner George Russell’s Mercedes and Max Verstappen’s Red Bull.

Piastri cut back on the exit, and they ran side by side down the long back straight, with the Australian on the inside. Norris braked earlier on the outside for the final chicane, to give himself a cleaner run through the corner and faster exit on to the pit straight.

It was terrific, clean, respectful racing, of the kind McLaren have been demanding from their drivers this season. Until it went wrong.

Norris said: “Our rule number one is to not make contact with your team-mate and it’s what I did. McLaren is my family. I race for them, you know, every single weekend. I try and do well for them, more than I often try and do well for myself.

“So, when I let them down like this and when I make a fool of myself in a moment like today, yeah, I have a lot of regret.

“I’ve let down the team. So, that’s going to stay with me for a little while. But at the same time, part of moving on is trying to put it behind you and crack on with the next weekend.”

Norris had no realistic option but to accept fault, but that does not always make a difference with racing drivers. And his decision to do so immediately defused any tension there might have been as a result of the incident.

Piastri said: “Lando is a very good guy, and it’s in his character and in his personality to say exactly what he thinks. And if that’s detrimental to himself, or if it’s about himself, then it doesn’t matter for him. And I think that’s a great quality of Lando.

“It’s good for the whole team going forward that we can have these conversations and go racing like this and have things not go the way we want, and get through them.”

Both men minimised the importance of the difference this had made to the gap between them in the championship, which is more than double what it was going into the race, but still with 14 races left and only 10 gone.

McLaren are taking a mature, sporting and open approach to the fight between their drivers, based on a philosophy of fair competition. They have been saying all year that they considered it a question of when not if they were involved in an incident.

It was in this spirit that team principal Andrea Stella took the situation.

“We never want to see two McLarens having contact,” he said. “This is part of our principles. We saw it today.

“This is just a result of a miscalculation, a misjudgment from a racing point of view, which obviously should not happen, but at the same time is part of racing.

“And we did appreciate the fact that Lando immediately owned the situation. He raised his hand, he took responsibility for the accident, and he apologised immediately to the team. He came to apologise to me as team principal in order to apologise to the entire team.

“On this one I want to be completely clear; it’s full support to Lando. We will have conversations and the conversations may be even tough.

“But there’s no doubt over the support we give to Lando and over the fact that we will preserve our parity and equality in terms of how we go racing at McLaren between our two drivers.

“The situation would be different if Lando had not taken responsibility and apologised.

Taking a step back from the immediacy of the drama, the bigger concern may be what it says about Norris and his state of mind – and raise questions as to what to do about it.

This has not been an easy season for Norris so far. He was very much McLaren’s leading driver last year. He was the one who took a semblance of a title fight to Verstappen in the closing stages of the season.

In the expectation that McLaren would continue their strong form in the second half of last year into this, Norris was the championship favourite going into the season.

Instead, the form between the two McLaren drivers has switched. Piastri has been the more convincing. He has five wins to Norris’ two. He is ahead 8-4 on their qualifying head-to-head. And Norris has been making mistakes, particularly in qualifying.

Norris has been saying all year that a lack of feel from the front axle of the car has been affecting his ability to predict its behaviour when taking it to the limit on one lap.

In Canada, McLaren introduced a small tweak to the suspension geometry, around where the upper wishbone meets the front wheel, in an attempt increase feel. Stella said there were “no downsides from Lando’s point of view”, and Norris ran it all weekend. Piastri felt he didn’t need it and continued with the original specification.

Norris was probably the quicker McLaren driver in Montreal – he did a stunning lap on used tyres to progress beyond the first part of qualifying. But he again over-drove when it mattered, making mistakes on both of his laps in the final session, and ending up seventh on the grid.

Stella said after qualifying that Norris had “just tried too hard”, and pointed out that on his final lap he was on target for pole before brushing the wall at Turn Seven.

“The speed is there,” Stella said on Saturday evening. “We just have to polish the fact that sometimes you sort of have to accept that you can’t always go 100%, especially when a little mistake can be so costly.”

Stella has emphasised that McLaren have been working with Norris on his difficulties this year.

After the race, he was asked what more they could do to get him into the right headspace, if that was indeed the problem. But he said he did not see a connection between Norris’ wider issues and the specifics of the collision in Canada.

“At the moment I wouldn’t say that that’s the reason why there was a misjudgment today,” Stella said. “I think this is too long a shot in terms of correlating these two events.

“Definitely there will be good conversations, but they will happen once we are all rested and calm.

US Open final leaderboard

-1 Spaun (US); +1 MacIntyre (Sco); +2 Hovland (Nor); +3 Hatton (Eng); Young (US), Ortiz (Mex), +4 Burns (US), Scheffler (US) Rahm (Spa); +5 Scott (Aus), Griffin (US), Henley (US)

Selected others: +6 Schauffele (US), Koepka (US); +7 McIlroy (NI); +8 Wallace (Eng), Spieth (US), +9 Rai (Eng); +11 Fitzpatrick (Eng); +15 Canter (Eng)

America’s JJ Spaun overcame a flooded golf course, a 90-minute rain delay and the brilliance of Scotland’s Robert MacIntyre to win the US Open on a chaotic final day at Oakmont Country Club.

The 34-year-old, who needed a par on the last to win his first major, holed an incredible 64-foot birdie putt to win by two on one under.

MacIntyre, watching on a television, applauded and simply mouthed “wow” when the putt dropped. It was a terrific gesture at the end of an enthralling final round.

The 28-year-old from Oban had gone close to breaking his own major duck at a course that is generally regarded as the toughest in the world.

He started the day seven off the lead and was the only player from the overnight top-10 to break par in the final round. His sensational two-under 68 set the clubhouse target at one over par.

But Spaun birdied the 17th to get to level par and then produced his moment of magic on the final green to send the drenched masses surround the putting surface wild.

It was quite the turnaround by the Californian, who started the round one shot behind overnight leader Sam Burns, and bogeyed five of his first six holes to seemingly drop out of contention.

However, after torrential rain stopped play for an hour and a half, Spaun regained his composure to follow a front nine of 40 shots with a back nine of 32.

“I never thought I would be here holding this trophy,” he said.

“I’ve always had aspirations and dreams but a few months ago I didn’t know what my ceiling was and how good I could be.”

While Spaun was climbing the leaderboard, the ragged play of others added to the drama.

Burns, who had led after rounds two and three, drowned in the rain, alongside playing partner Adam Scott. They endured nightmare rounds of eight and nine over par respectively to finish well off the pace.

At one stage on the back nine, five players shared the lead at one over par, including England’s Tyrrell Hatton who played outstandingly for 16 holes but stumbled at the 17th and finished four back.

Four bogeys on the front nine derailed Norway’s Viktor Hovland but a level-par closing nine saw him home in 73 to claim third place on three over.

Back in March, JJ Spaun was inches from landing a 31-foot birdie on the 18th hole to beat Rory McIlroy at The Players Championship. He was then defeated by the Northern Irishman in a play-off.

At the US Open, he went one better – from twice the distance – and he celebrated wildly before succumbing to his tears.

The putt ensured he was the only player to navigate 72 holes at brutal Oakmont Country Club under par – a fitting finish for the sole man to shoot a bogey-free round this week with his stunning 66 on Thursday.

And yet his final round was littered with bad breaks – and bogeys.

A horror start seemed to have cost him his chance at a career-changing title – his approach at the second hitting the flagpole before rolling 50 yards away, and then bouncing his ball off a rake at the fourth on his way to five bogeys in six holes.

But, while almost everyone else was speeding down the leaderboard, he showed remarkable composure after the rain break to haul himself back into contention.

Birdie putts from 40 and 22 feet lifted him into the lead and, after a bogey at the 15th, his stellar tee shot that found the green at the par-four 17th helped him secure another birdie. And the second best putter in the field by strokes gained sealed matters in style at the last.

“The weather delay changed the whole vibe for the day,” he said.

Spaun’s birdie putt ended MacIntyre’s chances of winning but this stunning performance serves notice of his own major ambitions.

“I’m a guy that believes,” he said. “Having a chance to win a major is what I dreamed of as a kid.”

MacIntyre began the day at three over par and bogeyed two of his first three holes to slip to five over, nine shots adrift of the lead.

However, with Oakmont and the weather wreaking havoc on the scorecards of the leading groups, he began to climb the standings.

A 60-foot eagle at the fourth erased the early damage and, after play returned, he made further birdies at the ninth, 14th and 17th to set the clubhouse lead at one over par, a score good enough for solo second.

Before this tournament he was 11th in the qualification stakes for Europe’s Ryder Cup defence against the United States at the similarly fearsome Bethpage Black in September, a position that will now improve.

His game also looks in good shape for next month’s defence of his 2024 Scottish Open title and a tilt at the following week’s Open Championship at Royal Portrush.

Hatton, meanwhile, could not hide his frustration after his excellent championship was undone by finding the downslope of thick rough at 17.

“What happened on 17 is going to hurt a lot for a long time,” he said. “It was the first time I’ve been in contention in a major, and that was exciting.

“Unfortunately, I feel like through a bit of bad luck I had momentum taken away from me and it ultimately ended up not being my day.”

A bogey-bogey finish meant Hatton ended three over, one ahead of world number one Scottie Scheffler – who never threatened to seriously close the gap – and Jon Rahm who shot a three-under 67, the joint best round of the day.

Leaderboard: -1 Spaun (US); +1 MacIntyre (Sco); +2 Hovland (Nor); +3 Hatton (Eng); Young (US), Ortiz (Mex), +4 Burns (US), Scheffler (US) Rahm (Spa); +5 Scott (Aus), Griffin (US), Henley (US)

Selected others: +6 Schauffele (US), Koepka (US); +7 McIlroy (NI); +8 Wallace (Eng), Spieth (US), +9 Rai (Eng); +11 Fitzpatrick (Eng); +15 Canter (US)

America’s JJ Spaun overcame a flooded golf course, a 90-minute rain delay and the brilliance of Scotland’s Robert MacIntyre to win the US Open on a chaotic final day at Oakmont Country Club.

The 34-year-old, who needed a par on the last to win his first major, holed an incredible 65-foot birdie putt to win by two on one under.

MacIntyre, who started the day seven off the lead, was the only player from the overnight top-10 to break par in the final round as he shot a sensational two-under 68 to set the clubhouse target at one over par.

But Spaun birdied the 17th to move one clear and then produced his moment of magic on the final green to send the drenched masses surround the putting surface wild.

The Californian, who started the round one shot off leader Sam Burns, bogeyed five of his first six holes to seemingly drop out of contention.

However, after torrential rain stopped play for an hour and a half, Spaun regained his composure to follow a front nine of 40 shots with a back nine of 32.

“I never thought I would be here holding this trophy,” he said.

“I’ve always had aspirations and dreams but a few months ago I didn’t know what my ceiling was and how good I could be.”

While Spaun was climbing the leaderboard, the ragged play of others added to the drama.

Overnight leader Burns and playing partner Adam Scott drowned in the rain, enduring nightmare rounds of eight and nine over par respectively to finish well off the pace.

At one stage, five players had shared the lead at one over par, including England’s Tyrrell Hatton who played outstandingly through 16 holes but imploded at the 17th and finished four back.

Back in March, JJ Spaun was inches from landing a birdie on the 18th hole from 31 feet to beat Rory McIlroy at The Players Championship and went on to lose in a play-off.

At the US Open, he went one better, from twice the distance, and he celebrated wildly before succumbing to his tears.

The putt ensured he was the only player to navigate 72 holes at brutal Oakmont Country Club under par – a fitting finish for the sole man to shoot a bogey-free round this week with his stunning 66 on Thursday.

And yet his final round was littered with bad breaks – and bogeys.

A horror start seemed to have cost him his chance at a career-changing title – his approach at the second hitting the flagpole before rolling 50 yards away, and then bouncing his ball off a rake at the fourth on his way to five bogeys in six holes.

But, while almost everyone else was speeding down the leaderboard, he showed remarkable composure after the rain break to haul himself back into contention.

Monster putts from 40 feet and 22 feet got him into the lead and, after a bogey at the 15th, his stellar tee shot at 17 earned him another birdie before the best putter in the field sealed matters in style at the last.

“The weather delay changed the whole vibe for the day,” he said.

Big Zuu scored the winner as a Carlos Tevez-inspired World XI beat England in front of a sellout Old Trafford crowd for Soccer Aid.

In the 14th edition of the annual charity football match between England and a World XI – which mixes celebrities and former footballers – the World XI won 5-4, as £15m was raised for children’s charity Unicef.

They had trailed 3-0 in the second half but turned things around thanks to four goals from former Manchester United and Manchester City striker Carlos Tevez.

All four of England’s goalscorers were former England international strikers, with ex-Tottenham player Jermain Defoe getting a double after former Manchester United star Wayne Rooney and Toni Duggan – who played for clubs including Manchester City and Barcelona – had put England 2-0 up.

Among plenty of former football talents, the two sides featured the likes of former One Direction singer Louis Tomlinson, YouTuber Angry Ginge, Diamond from Gladiator, comedian Richard Gadd, Olympic gold medallist Sir Mo Farah and The Last Of Us star Bella Ramsey.

And while pop star Tomlinson was roundly cheered whenever he touched the ball, the plaudits went to England’s Angry Ginge.

Rapper and TV personality Zuu had been conducting punditry duties until half-time, and predicted he would score before stepping on to the pitch.

He scored his first Soccer Aid goal with just five minutes remaining, mimicking Cristiano Ronaldo’s iconic ‘siuuu’ celebration after beating the goalkeeper – comedian and presenter Paddy McGuinness.

Tevez, 41, left Old Trafford during his playing days to join rivals Manchester City.

It prompted a bitter reaction from United fans, while City marked his arrival with a “Welcome to Manchester” poster campaign designed to annoy their rivals.

But on his return to the city, having come on at half-time with his team 2-0 down, he scored four second-half goals to turn the match around.

The first two goals came within 97 seconds of each other, before Tevez completed his hat-trick with a well placed free-kick.

Manchester United’s record goalscorer Rooney is no stranger to making history at Old Trafford, and managed it again at the Stretford End.

His goal after just four minutes is the fastest in Soccer Aid history.

The former England captain was teed up by a fellow Liverpudlian, actor James Nelson-Joyce from BBC drama This City Is Ours.

Rooney was taking up a player-coach role for the England team, with fellow managers boxer Tyson Fury, ex-football boss Harry Redknapp and actor Vicky McClure.

Soccer Aid has been raising money for United Nations children’s fund Unicef since 2006, and some of the biggest names from sport and showbiz have taken part.

The idea was initiated by singer Robbie Williams and TV presenter Jonathan Wilkes, with football legends Diego Maradona and Paul Gascoigne featuring in the first edition.

Initially held every other year, the match was made annual from 2018 – with more than £115m raised since its inception.