Button, Brawn, nominated for Laureus awards

Jenson Button, and the former Brawn (now Mercedes GP) team, have been nominated for prestigious Laureus World Sports awards.

30-year-old Button, who having previously won just a single Grand Prix, is nominated in the Breakthrough of the Year category after winning the 2009 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.

Brackley based Brawn, formed in the wake of a management buyout after 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, but motor racing is represented by Valentino Rossi.

The nominations, 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.