SILVERSTONE, United Kingdom: Max Verstappen on Thursday welcomed the restoration of his friendship with Lando Norris after the Briton had said he did not expect any apology from the three-time champion following their crash last Sunday.

The Red Bull driver said he and Norris had spoken last Monday, following their controversial collision in the Austrian Grand Prix at Spielberg, and had quickly agreed that they should continue to race each other hard in the same way.

“I said after the race that there’s no point in discussing it now because emotions are running high,” said the Dutchman.

“And then I woke up early and immediately because I wanted to talk to Lando, of course, but he had already texted me in the morning on Monday.

“So on the day afterwards, your emotions are a bit lower so actually I respected that a lot — and we are great friends and he’s a very nice guy, honestly.

“So I was really upset and disappointed that we had got together because on the track we race each other hard, but as a friend you are disappointed that this could happen.

“But we very quickly said that we had to race each other hard because that is what we like to do and we have always done that not only in Formula One but also on-line and stuff and that’s what we enjoy with each other — battling hard and that is what we will continue to do.”

The 64th lap collision came with Norris attempting to pass the three-time world champion and series leader for the race lead and resulted in both cars suffering punctures.

Verstappen rejoined after a pit-stop and finished fifth after being given a 10-second penalty for causing the crash while Norris pitted and retired.

McLaren’s Norris, who trails Verstappen by 81 points in the drivers’ title race, had taken the sting out of their argument by admitting he had over-reacted.

But, he said, he still held reservations about the incident and how it was managed by the race stewards.

“Honestly, I don’t think he needed to apologize,” the 24-year-old Briton conceded.

“Some of the things I said in the pen after the race were more because I was frustrated at the time.

“(There was) a lot of adrenaline and emotions and I probably said some things I didn’t necessarily believe, especially later on in the week. It was tough. It was a pretty pathetic incident, in terms of it ended both of our races.

“It wasn’t like a hit. It wasn’t like an obvious bit of contact. It was probably one of the smallest bits of contact you can have, but with a pretty terrible consequence for both of us, especially for myself.”

“I don’t expect an apology from him,” said Norris.

“I don’t think he should apologize. I thought it was, as a review, good racing. At times, maybe, very close to the edge, but like I said, we’ve spoken about it, we’ve talked about it and we’re both happy to go racing again.”

Verstappen, asked by Sky Sports F1 if he was concerned by the reaction to the incident, Verstappen added: “No, the only thing I care about in my life is that I am getting on well with Lando.”

“Naturally, I always said to Lando, when you go for moves up the inside, outside, you can trust me that I’m not there to try and crash you out of the way.

“Same the other way around because we spoke about that as well. There’s always a human reaction when someone dives up the inside or outside that you have a bit of a reaction to it, but I felt everything that I did was nothing massively over the top.

“Like how you design a car, you try to go to the edge of the rules, maybe you find some grey areas here and there as a car — and that’s the same how you race, otherwise you will never be a top driver and you will never succeed in life anyway.”

Asked if he felt it was possible to remain friends with a rival driver, he said: “It depends a bit on your personalities.

“I know Lando. He’s a great guy, a really nice person who loves F1, very passionate about it. You have to realize he’s fighting for his second potential win, I’m fighting for my 62nd.

“I think naturally your emotions are a little bit different. I know that from myself, when I was fighting for these first wins in F1, but that’s fine.”

SILVIS, Illinois: Hayden Springer posted the 14th sub-60 round in PGA Tour history on Thursday, joining a rapidly expanding list with an eagle-birdie finish in the John Deere Classic for a 12-under 59.

All that got him was a two-shot lead over Sami Valimaki on a rain-softened TPC Deere Run so vulnerable to scoring that only 13 players in the 156-man field were over par.

Springer shot 27 on the front nine and tried to block out thoughts of a 59 or better. Then he made five straight pars and figured the chance had passed until he holed a 55-yard shot for eagle on the par-5 17th.

Needing a birdie for golf’s magic number, his approach caught the slope and left him 12 feet short, and the putt was true all the way.

“Kind of at a loss for words in terms of being able to do that,” Springer said. “I feel like that’s one of the rare things in golf, so to have that opportunity and pull it off, it feels pretty special.”

The PGA Tour record is a 58 by Jim Furyk at the Travelers Championship in 2016. Furyk also is among 13 players with a 59.

Any score that starts with a 5 remains special, although it is not quite as rare as it once was as players get better each year. Springer became the second player in three weeks to break 60. Cameron Young also had a 59 at the Travelers Championship.

On golf tours worldwide, it was the eighth sub-60 round. The lowest was a 57 by Cristobal del Solar of Chile in a Korn Ferry Tour event in Colombia.

Springer tied the record at the TPC Deere Run. Paul Goydos shot a 59 in the first round of the John Deere Classic in 2010. Goydos had only a one-shot lead that year — Steve Stricker shot 60 the same day and went on to win.

Valimaki, playing in the afternoon, noticed Springer’s 59 as he played the front nine.

“I think it was my seventh hole,” Valimaki said. “I was like, ‘OK, I need to keep shooting lower and lower.’ Didn’t catch it, but still a good round.”

Eric Cole had a 62, while the group at 63 included Florida State sophomore Luke Clanton, who tied for 10th last week in the Rocket Mortgage Classic. Lucas Glover, on the wrong side of the postseason bubble with five weeks to go before the FedEx Cup playoffs, shot 64.

Players were allowed to lift, clean and place their golf balls in the short grass.

Still, Springer had reason to believe early on this might be a special day. He holed a 12-foot eagle putt on the second hole and chipped in from 60 feet for birdie on the next one. He birdied the next three holes, and then closed out the front nine with birdie putts of 3 feet and 7 feet.

It was the birdie putt from 15 feet on the fringe on the sixth hole that got him thinking how low he could go.

“I was like, ‘OK, I feel like I’m not missing today. I’m pretty much holing any putt I look at,’” he said. “So probably that putt going in was kind of the trigger of, ‘OK, we might be able to go super low.’”

Springer had missed five straight cuts, putting him in danger of losing his card. He played a Korn Ferry Tour event during the week of the US Open — he tied for 54th — and spent time with his longtime swing coach before registering a tie for 10th last week in Detroit.

If that was progress, then this was a giant leap.

But then, Springer already knows about handling the toughest of times. His infant daughter, Sage, was diagnosed in 2021 with Trisomy 18 — also known as Edwards Syndrome — in which babies are born with three copies of chromosome 18 instead of two.

Such infants typically don’t make it 72 hours. Sage was 3 when she died on Nov. 13, just a month before Springer faced Q-school. He had enough emotional capacity left to get his PGA Tour card, and now he’s in the record book with a sub-60 round.

“I don’t know if it gives me inner strength, but definitely tests you and you kind of have to find ways to work through it and to continue to move forward,” Springer said. “Most of that is our faith for us, just leaning into that and knowing that we’re secure in that.

“We’ve had some challenging things happen,” he said. “But at the end of the day I also want to compete and I love doing that.”

Kevin Chappell was among those at 64. Conditions were so conducive to scoring that 12 players from the morning wave were at 65 or lower. Jordan Spieth was not among them. He had to scramble for a 69, and his first step Friday will be making the cut.

As for Springer, he became the fourth player on the PGA Tour with a 59 in the opening round. Justin Thomas (Sony Open in 2017) and Brandt Snedeker (Wyndham Championship in 2018) went on to win. The exception was Goydos at the John Deere Classic.