Lewis Hamilton and Rory McIlroy will once again go head-to-head for yet another prestigious sports award – the ‘Laureus World Sportsman of the Year Award’.

The gala ceremony will take place on April 15th in Shanghai and three days after the Masters where McIlroy is looking to join just a handful of players to have won all four Majors.

And after the controversial and totally biased decision late last year when Hamilton was voted ‘BBC Sports Personality of the Year Award’ the double Formula One World Champion now faces a respected voting panel as opposed to a very biased F1 BBC TV voting public.

But then there’s also many other great sportsman in the mix for the Laureus award including Ballon d’Or winner Cristiano Ronaldo, tennis World No. 1 Novak Djokovic and Moto GP champion Marc Marquez.

And Hamilton was quick to recognise the talent lining up for the Laureus.

Lewis Hamilton and Rory McIlroy in line for the prestigious 2015 Laureus Sports Award on April 15th in Shanghai.

“Knowing how prestigious the Laureus Award is I feel very, very grateful and proud to be amongst the great athletes that have been nominated,” said the Brit.

‘It’s great when you have these awards, which recognise the excellence and the commitment from lots of different individuals. I’m proud to be amongst them.

‘It’s quite a line-up. Rory’s done an amazing job. Ronaldo, what a great player he is, Djokovic, I mean he’s killed everything. I could only have ever dreamed really, at this period of time in my life, to be up amongst them.’

Last year’s Laureus trophy was won by Hamilton’s German-born rival Sebastian Vettel and other winners include Usain Bolt, Roger Federer, Tiger Woods and Michael Schumacher.

And the European Ryder Cup Team is up for the ‘Laureus World Team of the Year Award’ and also seeking to make up for being blatantly snubbed at the BBC Sports Awards when the previously unheard of England Women’s Rugby World Cup Team scooped the award ahead of Paul McGinley’s victorious Gleneagles side.