As far as I know.. Pushing the gear lever to the left activates M sport gearing. A kind of "race" mode. It's still automatic, it just keeps you in the high RPM so you always have power no matter how fast/slow you are going etc, so your car moves quicker.
So yeah, still automatic, but hangs onto gears longer etc for more access to power.
Then finally you have the actual manual gearing, which is different
I could be wrong, but just so you at least know something about it while the more experienced guys answer. I've driven with it, but not paid much attention :=):