- Laureus World Sports awards
Button and Brawn nominated for prestigious gongs

- Drivers:
- Ross Brawn
- |
- Jenson Button
- |
- Mika Häkkinen
- |
- Lewis Hamilton
- |
- Michael Schumacher
- Teams:
- Brawn
Jenson Button and the Brawn team (now Mercedes GP) have been nominated for prestigious Laureus World Sports awards.
Button, who prior to 2009 had won just a single grand prix, is nominated in the Breakthrough of the Year category after winning last season's drivers' championship. He is up against fellow Britons Mark Cavendish (cycling) and Tom Daley (diving), as well as Juan Martin del Potro (tennis), golfer Ji Yai Shin, and Germany's VFL Wolfsburg football team. Lewis Hamilton took the same prize last year after winning his championship.
Brackley-based Brawn, formed in the wake of Honda's withdrawal from F1, is nominated for the Team of the Year prize. Also nominated are the football teams FC Barcelona and Germany's female team, the LA Lakers, New York Yankees and South Africa's rugby team.
No F1 names are nominated for the main World Sportsman of the Year prize, which Michael Schumacher won in 2002 and 2004, but motor racing is represented by MotoGP champion Valentino Rossi. The nominations, which will be announced by sportsmen including Laureus member Mika Hakkinen this week, follow a ballot involving the world's media.
The winners, to be named during a ceremony in Abu Dhabi next month, will be selected by a jury of 46 of the world's greatest ever sports men and women.
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