Snooker ace Ronnie O'Sullivan escaped unscathed from a car crash as he travelled home from defeat in the world championships final.

The five-times world champion and his six-year-old son, Ronnie Jnr, were travelling in a two-seater Audi R8 sports car when it spun out of control on the M1 near Leicester at around 1.30am.

Neither suffered serious injuries but they were understood to have been left "shaken" after pulling themselves out of the wreckage.

It came just hours after the 38-year-old lost the world final to Mark Selby by 18 frames to 14 at the Crucible theatre in Sheffield.

A police spokeswoman said: "We would not identify those involved in a road traffic collision but we did have a crash on the M1 southbound at about 1.30 in the morning. There was an adult and a child in that vehicle."

The car reportedly hit a pool of standing water before smashing into the central reservation as O'Sullivan and his son travelled home to Chigwell in Essex.

Weather conditions are thought to have been poor at they drove near Selby's hometown of Leicester but it has been reported that speed was not a factor in the accident.

O'Sullivan said after the final that he had "never been in such a good place" despite the defeat.

"He (Selby) out-fought me, out-battled me and I've got no complaints. I fought my hardest," the Rocket told fans.