LANDO LOSES IT

Lando Norris should be heading straight to a sports psychologist this week after the dumb mistake which could have cost him this year's Formula One world title.

Colliding with his team-mate in the Canadian Grand Prix was bad enough.

But Norris was only battling for fourth place on a weekend when the whole McLaren squad was playing for points, not a shot at winning.

He also broke the most fundamental of the 'Papaya Rules' by colliding with his team mate.

“I’m sorry, all my bad. Stupid from me,” Norris said.

“No one to blame but myself, so I apologise to the whole team and to Oscar as well for attempting something probably a bit too silly."

As Norris flogged himself over the mistake, not waiting for fans or the world's media to get involved, it was clear – once again – that the pressure of a F1 title fight is getting to him.

While Piastri has been rock-solid and restrained, Norris has been up and down in both qualifying and races.

When things go well, as they did in Monaco, he is fantastic. But . . .

Norris has seemed far more fragile than his rivals since McLaren became regular winners, firstly in his battles with Max Verstappen and now against Piastri.

He has looked like someone who needs a hug.

In the aftermath of Canada, as McLaren rallied around him, it was clear he needed help.

“This was just more silly. This wasn’t even like a ‘that’s racing’, it was just silly from my part," Norris said.

“McLaren is my family, I race for them 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, I have a lot of regret in something like that.

“So I’m not proud of that, and I feel bad, and I feel like I let my down my team. And that’s for me always the worst feeling. So, of course, I really need to apologise to all of them. And Oscar as well.”

While Norris was flogging himself – again – Piastri just got on with the job.

“If Lando has taken full responsibility then that’s how it goes, I guess,” Piastri said.

It was up to team boss Andrea Stella to smooth things over, while also giving a 'hug' to Norris.

"It's up to us as a team to show our full support to Lando," Stella said.

"The situation would be different if Lando would have not taken responsibility and apologised. This is just a result of a miscalculation, a misjudgement 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.

"Lando will have to show his character to overcome this kind of episode, make sure that he only takes the learnings, he only takes what will make him a stronger driver, and dismisses anything which will be a little bit of residual."