Former Formula One great Mark Webber joins a colourful cast of professional drivers, Hollywood royalty, a celebrated Olympic cyclist, and a quadruple amputee in the Le Mans 24 Hour Race this weekend.

Formula One made its debut in Azerbaijan yesterday with some immediate teething problems and Mercedes’s triple world champion Lewis Hamilton fastest in practice around the Baku street circuit.

Dustin Johnson, seeking to expunge the memory of last year’s US Open near miss, fired a flawless three-under par 67 yesterday to put the pressure on little-known first-round leader Andrew Landry.

Defending champion Andy Murray survived a stern test from Kyle Edmund to reach the Queen’s Club semi-finals with a 6-4, 3-6, 6-1 victory over the British wildcard yesterday.

Forestry officials in western India have ordered an inquiry after cricketer Ravindra Jadeja posted several photos on social media of him and his wife posing with endangered Asiatic lions.

The big race of Ladies’ Day at Royal Ascot, the Gold Cup (Gr1), went to the hot favourite Order of St George.

Athletics’ governing body the IAAF has rejected claims by the BBC that its president Sebastian Coe misled a British government probe into doping and that he was helped in his presidential campaign by the son of his predecessor in the position.

Russia yesterday called into question the veracity of a new report by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) which accused Russian athletes of still doping, but it promised to facilitate the agency’s work.

Canadian teen Brooke Henderson, coming off her first major title at the Women’s PGA Championship, and world number one Lydia Ko will meet again at the Meijer LPGA Classic.

Little-known American Andrew Landry upstaged the game’s biggest names by seizing an early three-shot lead at the US Open yesterday as play was twice suspended due to threatening weather.

The front lines of Syria’s civil war are just a few kilometres away, but at the Tishrin Stadium in Damascus, Majd Ghazal is training hard for August’s Olympics in Brazil.

Weightlifting’s governing body yesterday banned Kazakhstan’s double Olympic champion Ilya Ilyin and three other gold medallists for failing dope tests at the 2012 London Olympics.