Lando Norris made the most of the Italian Grand Prix weekend to pay homage to his racing hero, Valentino Rossi, calling it “a lot of fun” to race with cus🌠tom kit.

McLaren F1 driver Norris haಌs always looked up to motorcycle racing icon Rossi, and managed to meet the Yamaha rider for th🔯e first time at the Silverstone MotoGP round last month.

Norris took advantage of the meeting to buy as much Rossi merchandise as he could get his hands on, including a Doctor-themed bucket hat that he wore on a live stre🌠am.

As well as customising his helmeꦚt and race boots to match Ross❀i’s designs – with approval from the nine-time 🃏world champion himself – Norris 🥃brought the bucket hat to Monza, wearing it in the garage and on the grid ahead of the race.

“It’s been good fun, as much as some people t🌊hought I looked like an idiot, which I probably did,” Norris told mahbx.com after the rac🌃e at Monza.

“You know when you can just tell. They say ‘nice hat!’ but you can just tell they🔯’re like ‘whဣat an idiot!’ I saw a lot of faces like that...

“But I honestly couldn’t 💎care less. I enjoyed myself. It’s not like I’m going to be wearing that hat every weekend, it’s just this weekend.

“It’s been very enjoyable for me, I’ve loved it, especially havi🦩ng the Rossi-related helmet and bꦡoots and so on.

“I had a lot of fun. That’s all that matters.”

Norris recovered from a back-of-grid engine penalty to finish the race 10th on Sunday, with the Briton feeling it was the best result realistically possible for🎃 McLaren.

“T𒊎he VSC helped a few drivers such as [Sergio] Perez, almost [Pierre] Gasly. So it could have been better for us, but i🍬t wasn’t,” Norris said.

“I think in terms of the race, P10 was probably almost as good as it was going to get. We weren’t far away from getting [Antonio] Giovinazzi on the last ✱couple of laps.

“I know there are things I can improve on and 💞do a bit better on, nothing major that was going to be pos🅷itions-worth and loads of points worth.

“But one 🌼point is better than no points, so I’m still happy.”