World sport awards nominations for Rosberg, Mercedes

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Nico Rosberg and Mercedes have both been nominated for awards in the prestigious 2017 Laureus World Sports Awards after clinching their respective Formula One world championships in 2016.

The nominations are decided by a ballot of the world's sporting media.

After securing his maiden title victory last season, Rosberg has been included among the nominations for the World Breakthrough Of The Year category where he will be up against athletes Almaz Ayana and Wayde van Niekerk.

Also included in the category nominations are three teams who produced upset results in their respective sports in 2016: English Premier League Champions Leicester City, European Championship quarter-finalists Iceland and Olympic Rugby Sevens gold medal winners Fiji.

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Previous winners of the World Breakthrough Of The Year award from the world of motorsport include Daniel Ricciardo, Jenson Button, Lewis Hamilton and Juan Pablo Montoya.

Last year at the Laureus World Sports Awards, Mercedes' chairman Niki Lauda received a lifetime achievement award. Toro Rosso's Max Verstappen missed out on the Breakthrough of the Year award to golfer Jordan Spieth, while Lewis Hamilton was on the list of nominees for Sportsman of the Year but was beaten by Novak Djokvoic after the tennis world number one has succeeded in reaching all four Grand Slam finals and won three in 2015.

In addition to Rosberg's nod this year, Mercedes' latest Formula One constructors championship success means that it has picked up a third successive nomination in the World Team Of The Year category.

Other nominees in the category include European football champions Portugal, Champions League winners Real Madrid, Brazil’s Olympic-winning football team, baseball’s Chicago Cubs, and NBA champions Cleveland Cavaliers.

Brawn GP and Renault have both been previous recipients of the World Team Of The Year award.

This year's awards will be announced in Monaco on February 14.

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.