Lewis Hamilton admits he has become accustomed to trailing Mercedes team-mate George Russell after struggling in qualifying for the Mexico City Grand Prix.

Hamilton qualified in sixth for Sunday's race, one place behind Russell despite the latter reverting to an older floor for his W15 car following a crash in Friday's practice.

The seven-time drivers' champion trailed his team-mate by almost three tenths of a second and has now only beaten him in qualifying five times in 20 races this year.

Speaking to Sky Sports F1 following the conclusion of qualifying, which saw Carlos Sainz snatch pole position ahead of title contenders Max Verstappen and Lando Norris, Hamilton admitted he had struggled all year.

"I'm losing all the time, that's why I've been so bad in qualifying all year," Hamilton, who sits sixth in the drivers' championship standings, said. 

"It's a normal thing and I'm used to it. We have done everything. We worked so hard in the background, like everyone does, to get the car in a nice place.

"It was feeling good in final practice, so we were like, 'let's not touch anything or do anything'. All we changed was the rear wing and it's just a drastic difference.

"Every time I get to qualifying, the car is completely different. I can't pinpoint why, but it is what it is." 

Mercedes had switched to an older iteration of their car floor after both drivers struggled at last week's United States Grand Prix, with Russell now on an even older edition following his crash in second practice.

"Maybe George is more comfortable on the older package," Hamilton said. "I don't know, we'll see. We'll get a good reading of which is best."

Kevin Durant was hailed as a generational talent by Phoenix Suns coach Mike Budenholzer after becoming the eighth player to reach 29,000 career NBA points.

Durant scored 31 points as the Suns recorded their second victory in three games on Saturday, beating the Dallas Mavericks 114-102.

That made him just the eighth player in league history to score 29,000 points, after LeBron James, the NBA's scoring leader with 40,543 points, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Karl Malone, Kobe Bryant, Michael Jordan, Dirk Nowitzki and Wilt Chamberlain.

Addressing the 36-year-old's landmark after the game, Budenholzer said: "What a tribute to a great, generational talent. I feel incredibly lucky to be around him every day."

Durant now has 29,010 total points through his 17 seasons in the league with the Seattle Supersonics, Oklahoma City Thunder, Golden State Warriors, Brooklyn Nets and Phoenix.

He has averaged over 20 points in each of his campaigns in the league, but he said the credit must go to those who have put him in a position to score points.

"I've got to give credit to the people who have helped me since I was a kid," Durant said. 

"Team-mates who passed me the ball, set screens for me, coaches who drew up plays for me."

Zheng Qinwen was delighted to atone for her 2022 Tokyo Open final defeat as she overcame Sofia Kenin to capture the title on Sunday.

Zheng won her third WTA title of the year by beating wild-card entrant Kenin 7-6 (7-5) 6-3 in one hour and 52 minutes in the Japanese capital.

The Chinese number one, who won gold at the Paris Olympic Games and successfully defended her Palermo title during the clay-court season, was featuring in her second Tokyo final after finishing as runner-up to Liudmila Samsonova two years ago.

Speaking after her victory, Zheng said: "I really appreciate that I'm able to fight through and be the champion in Tokyo. 

"This is the one I wanted to get when I was 19 years old. I fought so hard, but I didn't, I lost in the final. So this year, I'm just really happy."

Zheng will now look to continue her momentum when she makes her WTA Finals debut in Riyadh next week, but she knows the competition in Saudi Arabia will be fierce. 

"All the players are really tough to beat," Zheng said. "From the first match, I'll need to be focused. It's the first time for me in the WTA Finals. I am so motivated but let’s see what's going to happen."

Data Debrief: Zheng flying in Asia

Zheng now boasts a 28-4 record since the end of Wimbledon, and her form through the Asian Swing has been nothing short of magnificent.

She went 12-2 through the Asian events, and her career win-loss record in Tokyo now stands at 8-1.

Carlos Sainz celebrated a near-perfect qualifying session as the Spaniard now aims to win from pole at the Mexican Grand Prix.

Sainz was the quickest through qualifying on Saturday, and will start ahead of reigning Formula One champion Max Verstappen.

Lando Norris rounded out the top three, with Sainz's Ferrari team-mate Charles Leclerc – who won in dominant fashion in Austin last week – fourth on the grid.

It marks the sixth time Sainz, who is leaving Ferrari at the end of the season with Lewis Hamilton coming in as his replacement, has taken pole.

He said: "I'm very happy and [had] a great couple of laps.

"A lot of times around Mexico you always have a feeling that you can not put a lap together and it's extremely difficult with how much sliding there is, but today my two laps of Q3 were pretty much identical and almost perfect.

"I'm very happy because it's not normally the case around Mexico with how tricky it is."

Ferrari are third in the Constructors' Championship, with 496 points, eight behind Red Bull and 48 off pace-setters McLaren.

Sainz added: "It [the Constructors' Championship] is our number one priority. Especially if you win the race, those extra seven, eight points that you can win is important for the team in the Constructors'.

"I will be looking forward to getting that P1 into Turn One and hopefully our race pace will be good enough to win it."

Verstappen heads into Sunday 57 points clear of Norris in the driver standings, with just five races remaining.

"[The pressure] was quite a lot," said Verstappen. "I think [the circuit] is probably one of the hardest tracks to get right.

"Street circuits are difficult, but this one as well, as there is low downforce, it's very easy to have a lock-up or a slide, so it's one of the tricky ones on the calendar."

Three of the last four winners of the Mexican Grand Prix have come from third on the grid, meaning there is plenty of hope for Norris.

"I'm pretty happy with third honestly, I feel like I got to the limit of the car quite quickly which made us look good," he said.

"I struggled to get more out of it in the final two laps, Carlos and Max did good laps, especially Carlos who has been quick all weekend.

"No one has done proper long runs on the tyres that we are going to be on tomorrow so there are question marks for all of us. Ferrari have been very good in qualifying and long run pace over the last couple of races. It's going to be tough but we're in a good position so I'm looking forward to it."

Hansi Flick is loving his time at Barcelona as he celebrated a resounding 4-0 success over Real Madrid in El Clasico.

Flick's side ran out convincing victors at the Santiago Bernabeu on Saturday, with Robert Lewandowski scoring twice in quick succession before Lamine Yamal and Raphinha sealed the result.

Barca snapped a four-game losing streak against their fiercest rivals, while they also ended Madrid's hopes of matching their LaLiga-record unbeaten run of 43 games, which was set under Ernesto Valverde in 2018.

The Blaugrana's win came on the back of a 4-1 thrashing of Flick's former club Bayern Munich, and the ex-Germany coach is enjoying life at Barca.

"I'm delighted to be working at Barcelona and to live in Barcelona," he said after collecting his 10th LaLiga win from 11 games this season.

"It's a fantastic job, I'm very happy.

"We have played a fantastic game and I am so proud.

"We pressed better with and without the ball [in the second half]. We had more possession and that's why the game changed."

Barca's high line was a key factor in their victory, with Madrid caught offside eight times in the first half alone, with Kylian Mbappe in particular struggling to stay on the right side of the defence.

"The defensive effort was key," Flick added.

"We have trained a lot on how to defend with a high line and on how we want to press on the ball. It's also important not to leave spaces when you play Real Madrid because they have incredible players.

"I think we are doing well. We are sticking to our idea and right now we are fluid and we want to move forward."

Lewandowski has now scored 10 goals in 16 meetings with Madrid in all competitions, while he has already netted 14 times in LaLiga this term.

"We are very happy, very happy. To win here like this is a great victory," Lewandowski told DAZN.

"The season is long, but this victory can help us with a lot more, with confidence and football. So far we haven't won anything, but the important thing is that we have a clear idea, we know where we want to go on."

Everton showed an "endless desire" in their draw against Fulham that pleased Sean Dyche, though Marco Silva bemoaned an "unfair" draw at Goodison Park.

Former Everton midfielder Alex Iwobi put Fulham, managed by ex-Toffees boss Silva, on course for victory in the Premier League on Saturday.

Yet Iwobi's neat 61st-minute finish was cancelled out when Everton substitute Beto headed home deep into added time to salvage a 1-1 draw for the hosts, who are now unbeaten in five league matches, which is their longest such run under Dyche.

Fulham had 60.3% possession and 14 shots to Everton's 10, while also mustering 1.25 expected goals (xG) to the Toffees' 0.79, though Dyche's team did have five shots on target to the visitors' three. 

Everton also had a goal disallowed after Dominic Calvert-Lewin strayed offside before tucking in the rebound from an Idrissa Gueye shot that hit the bar in the first half, albeit Fulham were largely untroubled otherwise.

Dyche knows Everton were not at their best, but was delighted with the grit that was on display to claw out a leveller.

He told Sky Sports: "The mentality is growing, you have to have that in the Premier League.

"We know we're not the real deal, but on a day when we weren't close to where I want us to be, we got a point and kept going and the mentality stayed strong to make sure we did that.

"We've had to grind, had to find a way, that’s sometimes the way the Premier League is. We didn't deserve to win, but we nicked a draw, and have that endless desire to get something from the game. I was really pleased with that side of things."

Silva, meanwhile, insisted his side deserved the points.

"The best team was Fulham, from the first minute until the last minute of the game. We controlled all the game, with the ball, in our way," he told Sky Sports.

"We had three or four clear chances in the first half, and the second half was the same story. When we scored the first, we should have killed the game. We had the chances to score and kill the game and it would have been much more difficult for them.

"They were really lucky – we should have defended it better, that moment inside the box. Our defenders should be there, to control that situation, but the result was really unfair to my players. It's clear we were the better team on the pitch."

Fulham have scored the opening goal in seven Premier League games this season.

However, Fulham have now dropped 10 points from winning positions – only Brentford (11) have lost more.

Michel acknowledged the impact of the rigorous schedule on his Girona players following a loss at Las Palmas on Saturday.

Last season's third-placed team experienced a 1-0 defeat against struggling Las Palmas, with a first-half goal from Alex Munoz proving decisive.

The result left Girona languishing in 13th place in the standings.

And Michel conceded a demanding schedule, which includes Champions League games in Girona's maiden European campaign, is taking its toll.

"I have a lot of faith in all the players, and I believe we competed very well in the first half," Michel said.

"I can't make substitutions due to the lack of available players. That's the main issue.

"The credit goes to [Las Palmas] for winning a match at a lower rhythm than they usually have with the ball, yet remaining solid," Michel concluded.

Girona will play CD Extremadura in the first round of Copa del Rey on Wednesday, before they take on Leganes in LaLiga.

LeBron James had a triple-double with 32 points, 14 rebounds and 10 assists, and Anthony Davis added 31 points and nine rebounds to lead the unbeaten Los Angeles Lakers to a 131-127 victory over the Sacramento Kings on Saturday night.

The Lakers improved to 3-0 under new coach JJ Redick, and Davis has scored at least 31 points in each game this season. 

Los Angeles was up by as many as 15 points in the first half, but the Kings cut the lead to 64-60 by halftime and had built a 7-point lead in the third quarter. James helped the Lakers come roaring back with 16 points in the fourth quarter.

Davis had a big 3-pointer with 37 seconds left to give the Lakers a 128-123 lead after the Kings had cut it to two.

Domantas Sabonis also had a triple-double in the loss. He scored 29 points on 10 of 14 shots and added 12 rebounds and 10 assists.

James made a long 3 in the fourth quarter to cap an 8-0 run to give the Lakers a 101-94 lead.

Durant, Suns overcome Doncic

Kevin Durant scored 31 points, Jusuf Nurkic added 18 points and 14 rebounds and the Phoenix Suns defeated the Dallas Mavericks 114-102 despite Luka Dončić’s 40 points.

The Suns never trailed after the first quarter, though the Mavericks kept the deficit in the single digits for much of the night. Doncic also grabbed 10 rebounds while Kyrie Irving added 22 points.

The Suns led 91-80 heading into the fourth quarter and extended the lead to 105-90 six minutes later. Devin Booker added 21 points while rookie Ryan Dunn scored 13 in his first career start. Tyus Jones added seven assists.

Doncic started hot with 23 points in the first half but cooled off after halftime. He shot 12 of 25 from the field, including 5 of 13 from 3-point range. Klay Thompson had 19 points, making five 3s.

The Suns led by as many as 13 in the first half but settled for a 63-55 lead at the break.

Clippers survive Jokic’s 41

James Harden had 23 points and 16 assists, Norman Powell scored 26 of his 37 points in the second half and the Los Angeles Clippers overcame Nikola Jokić's 41 points to beat the Denver Nuggets 109-104.

Jokic made a career-high seven 3-pointers but missed a free throw with 20 seconds left that would have tied it. Harden made four from the line in the final 30.5 seconds.

The Clippers trailed 103-100 when Powell hit a 3-pointer. Jamal Murray, who had 22 points, missed a layup and Harden then made two free throws.

After Jokic split a pair from the line, Harden made two more foul shots to make it 107-104 and Jokic missed an off-balance 3-pointer.

Harden was 12 of 13 from the line and several of his 16 assists were to Ivica Zubac, who had 24 points and 15 rebounds.

Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed one hit over 6 1/3 innings and the Los Angeles Dodgers hit three early homers off Carlos Rodón to beat the New York Yankees 4-2 on Saturday night for a 2-0 World Series lead in a game overshadowed by an injury to Shohei Ohtani.

Freddie Freeman, Tommy Edman and Teoscar Hernández went deep for the Dodgers, who watched Ohtani walk off the field with a left shoulder injury at the end of the seventh inning.

After the Yankees closed to 4-2 on Giancarlo Stanton's RBI single in the ninth against Blake Treinen, Alex Vesia relieved with the bases loaded and retired pinch-hitter Jose Trevino on a first-pitch flyout for the save.

Yamamoto allowed Juan Soto's third-inning homer, then retired his last 11 batters and 15 of his final 16.

Soto also singled in the ninth and scored on Stanton's one-out hit off the third-base bag. Jazz Chisholm Jr. singled, and Anthony Rizzo was hit by a pitch, loading the bases. Treinen then struck out Anthony Volpe before Vesia relieved.

Ohtani hurt his left shoulder on a feetfirst slide when he was caught stealing second base to end the seventh.

Game 3 is Monday night at Yankee Stadium. Forty-five of 56 teams holding 2-0 World Series leads have gone on to win the title.

New York star Aaron Judge went 0 for 4 with three strikeouts and is hitting .150 with six RBIs and 19 strikeouts in 40 postseason at-bats.

Yamamoto struck out four and walked two with a five-pitch array that included curveballs, splitters, sliders and cutters. He improved to 2-0 in four postseason starts.

A night after Freeman hit the first walk-off grand slam in Series history to transform a 3-2 deficit with two outs in the 10th inning into a 6-3 win, Edman put the Dodgers ahead with a solo shot in the second.

After Soto tied the score, Mookie Betts singled with two outs in the bottom half and Hernández, in a 3-for-27 slide, homered into the right-center pavilion for a 3-1 lead.

Carlo Ancelotti said Real Madrid will not "throw everything in the trash" despite losing the first Clasico of the season 4-0 to a rampant Barcelona side at the Santiago Bernabeu.

Madrid suffered their first league defeat since September 2023 – when they went down 3-1 to Atletico Madrid – on Saturday, as Robert Lewandowski netted twice and was joined on the scoresheet by Lamine Yamal and Raphinha.

Los Blancos fell just short of equalling the longest unbeaten run in the history of LaLiga, a 43-match streak by Ernesto Valverde's Barcelona between 2017 and 2018.

They are now six points adrift of the Blaugrana at the top of LaLiga, but Ancelotti is choosing to remain calm, recalling that his side lost another Clasico by the same scoreline in their double-winning season of 2021-22.

"We don't have to throw everything in the trash, we have to forget the last 30 minutes," he said. 

"It does not reflect what happened on the field. We couldn't get ahead on the scoreboard and they took advantage. The game, until the first goal, was very even and we had more chances.

"We already lost 4-0 here to Barca and won LaLiga and the Champions League. We won't be far from last season." 

Madrid were continually caught out by Barca's high line, being caught offside eight times in the first half alone, with Kylian Mbappe being flagged eight times throughout the game.

Ancelotti said Madrid had chosen to target Barca's defence with balls in behind after watching them play a high line in Wednesday's Champions League win over Bayern Munich.

"It was known that they use the high line and we almost didn't take advantage of it. He had chances and sometimes he was offside," Ancelotti added of Mbappe.

"But we had three or four opportunities where they needed more success. I don't regret our approach. We did have opportunities. 

"It's a tough moment, as always when you lose. And even more so when you do it after so many games unbeaten."

Brighton boss Fabian Hurzeler accused his team of a lack of professionalism after they squandered a 2-0 lead with two minutes of the 90 remaining versus Wolves.

The Seagulls were on course for their fifth win of the season when goals from Danny Welbeck and Evan Ferguson gave them a comfortable lead, only for a remarkable collapse to cost them at the death.

Rayan Ait-Nouri halved Wolves' deficit in the 88th minute, then Brighton missed a glorious four-on-one chance at one end and conceded a stoppage-time equaliser seconds later, Matheus Cunha powering home to double Wolves' points tally for the campaign.

It was the first time Brighton had failed to win a Premier League game after leading by two goals since a 3-3 draw with Liverpool in October 2022, and Hurzeler has demanded they learn from the experience.

"We were not clean enough in the defending during the last 10 minutes. We were too passive and not professional enough to finish the game in an ugly way," Hurzeler said.

"We haven't managed this today, so we have to learn from it. Hopefully we learn quickly but how to manage a game and win in an ugly way is a big topic for us. 

"It is important to also have bad experiences because if you only have good experiences, you won't grow personally. 

"In these moments, you can show your character and you can show how strong you are. You can lift yourself up and show a reaction."

The result could prove to be a pivotal one for Wolves boss Gary O'Neil, who had come under pressure after a difficult start to the season, with his team already having faced Arsenal, Chelsea, Newcastle United, Aston Villa, Liverpool and Manchester City this term.

"Obviously coming back late gives everyone a lift. It was something we deserved from the game," O'Neil said. 

"It looked very unlikely at 85 minutes, of course, when we'd just gone 2-0 down, but in the second half we were the dominant side. 

"To come here with where they are in the league, how well they've done against some really good sides recently, the players they have, the money they've spent in the summer... to come and be the better side for 45 minutes, the players deserve an awful lot of credit.

"We went about it in a strange way, but as it is at the moment, we decide to try and do it the hard way, and it ended up a little bit crazy at the end.

"But I'm delighted for the boys, because they've had some tough, tough breaks, some deflections go against us – [Fabian] Schar and the last-minute goal at the weekend."

Bayer Leverkusen coach Xabi Alonso said his side were made to pay for "soft" defending against Werder Bremen.

Bremen twice came from a goal down to snatch a point and leave Leverkusen with a third draw from their last four league games.

Victor Boniface, returning to action after sustaining a hand injury in a car crash last week, opened the scoring in Saturday's Bundesliga contest, yet Marvin Ducksch restored parity midway through the second half.

Felix Agu's own goal put Leverkusen back in front, but late on, Romano Schmid fired in an equaliser.

"The fact that Werder could come back was down to both sides," Alonso said. "We were too soft in defending and they used their chances.

"We can and must defend better. At the moment we are missing a bit of stability. When we win it back then we will improve.

"At the end of the day we cannot be satisfied having twice wasted a lead.

"It is not the first time this has happened to us this season. There are things we need to correct."

Leverkusen's latest slip-up in the league has left them five points off leaders RB Leipzig in third place.

They also drew 1-1 at Brest in the Champions League on Wednesday.

"This feels like crap," said central defender Jonathan Tah. "Like a defeat. We just have to keep defending until the last second.

"The goals we let in were frustrating. I feel responsible. But we will get the chance to silence those talking about us now."