McLaren driver Lando Norris is a massive fan of MotoGP legend Valentino Rossi. So, during the Italian Grand Prix weekend, he decided to pay tribute to his idol. In fact, he called it “a lot of fun” to race with custom kit as he had a Rossi-themed helmet.

At the British Grand Prix, Norris’ dream came true as he managed to meet the Yamaha rider. During that race weekend, Lando Norris took advantage of the meeting to stock up on Rossi merchandise, including a Doctor-themed bucket hat that he wore on a live stream on Twitch.

He even fashioned his helmet and race boots to match Rossi’s designs, after getting Rossi’s approval. Norris even 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 thought I looked like an idiot, which I probably did,” Norris revealed to Crash.net.

“You know when you can just tell. They say ‘nice hat!’ but you can just tell they’re like ‘what 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 having the Rossi-related helmet and boots and so on. I had a lot of fun. That’s all that matters.”

That weekend was a difficult one for Lando Norris, owing to an engine penalty. However, he managed to scythe his way up the order to finish the race 10th..

“The VSC helped a few drivers such as [Sergio] Perez, almost [Pierre] Gasly. So it could have been better for us, but it 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 positions-worth and loads of points worth.

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