PHILLIP ISLAND, Australia -- MotoGP world champion Valentino Rossi paid a special and home-made tribute to Barry Sheene, after the Italian's thrilling win in the Australian Grand Prix on Sunday.

Rossi, 24, did a victory lap at the Phillip Island track, 130-km south-east of Melbourne, with a black and white number seven flag draped across his shoulders in honour of the British former world champion who died in March, aged 52.

Rossi carried the flag into his news conference and described Sheene, who later settled in Australia and became a popular television commentator, as more than just a top sportsman.

"I made the number seven flag out of respect for my friend Barry Sheene," Rossi said.

"I know Barry from my father's stories (of Graziano Rossi's track duels with Sheene in the 1970s).

"I always remember Barry Sheene with the number seven," he said.

Honda rider Rossi clinched his third successive world championship in the premier class by winning last week's Malaysian Grand Prix.

The Italian said he had dined with Sheene, who won the 1976 and 1977 500cc world championships on a Suzuki, at last year's Australian Grand Prix.

"He was a magic person, more than just a world champion. In March this year when he died I was very sad," Rossi said.

"We made this flag with the hotel bed sheet this morning. We painted the number seven on," he said. "I'm sorry hotel," he joked.

Australia's five-time 500cc world champion Michael Doohan rode one of Sheene's old race bikes around the Phillip Island track before Sunday's race as a tribute to the former Londoner who famously played hard on and off the track.