Castres held on to beat Bordeaux-Begles 33-27 in a six-try thriller in the French Top 14 yesterday.

‘...but in any high-performance environment you need a certain level of discomfort’

Al Gharafa and Al Sadd shared six goals in a scintillating 3-3 draw yesterday while Al Rayyan notched up their first win under new coach Michael Laudrup in the Qatar Stars League.

Nissan’s Adel Hussein Abdulla wrapped up his maiden FIA World Cup campaign in the T2 category for Series Production Cross-Country vehicles by claiming a stunning victory from Italy’s Alessandro Trivini Bellini at the 30th Baja Portalegre 500 yesterday afternoon.

This time there were not going to be any misses. History books could not help but include Jonathan Rea in their annals.

Every time one comes to the Losail International Circuit, one is left amazed by the beauty of the circuit. The facilities are incredible and the track in itself is well liked by the professionals who race on it.

Lewis Hamilton continued his fighting late-season defence of his world title by grabbing pole position ahead of his Mercedes teammate Nico Rosberg in yesterday’s tense qualifying session for tonight’s Mexican Grand Prix.

Cristiano Ronaldo returned to goalscoring form with his first hat-trick of the season and also missed a penalty as Real Madrid extended their lead at the top of La Liga with a 4-1 win at Alaves yesterday.

Robert Lewandowski and Arjen Robben combined for all three goals as Bundesliga leaders Bayern Munich eased to an impressive 3-1 victory for their second win over Augsburg this week.

Sergio Aguero’s brace ended Pep Guardiola’s worst run as a manager as Manchester City turned on the style with a 4-0 win at West Bromwich Albion yesterday.

Tom Heaton’s saves frustrated his former club Manchester United as Burnley drew 0-0 at Old Trafford yesterday to secure a first Premier League away point of the season.

Olivier Giroud came off the bench to score twice in five second-half minutes as Arsenal maintained their Premier League title challenge with a comfortable 4-1 win at struggling Sunderland yesterday.