Luca Badoer at Zandvoort for the Marlboro Masters.

The championship-leading Ferrari, Mitsubishi and Yamaha teams, plus the best formula Three drivers in the world head the bill at the 11th Marlboro Masters at the Dutch seaside resort of Zandvoort this weekend.

Ferrari's Luca Badoer, Mitsubishi rallymen Tommi Makinen and Freddy Loix, and 500cc motorcycle Grand Prix racers Carlos Checa and Max Biaggi will all be giving demonstrations on the Saturday and the Sunday, while the front runners from the British, French, German and Japanese Formula Three championships will be trying to follow in the footsteps of Jos Verstappen and David Coulthard by winning this prestigious event.

It's the second of the four International Formula Three races held per year. Britain's Anthony Davidson won at Pau in France in the spring, while the final two races are in Macau and Korea at the end of the year.

Forty-six competitors from 17 nations are present in Holland, and 17 of them have won in Formula Three this year. But it's Davidson's Carlin Motorsport teammate, Takuma Sato of Japan, who starts favourite in Holland. He has won eight rounds of the British Formula Three championship this year and leads the series. Curiously, his main rivals are compatriots, proving that Japanese drivers are coming good outside Japan. Ryo Fukuda leads the French championship with four wins, and is taking part in his third Marlboro Masters, while Toshihiro Kaneishi leads the German Formula Three championship. He finished fifth at Zandvoort last year. For the first time, the leaders of the Japanese Formula Three series are also present - and ironically, they are Benoit Treluyer from France, and Paolo Montin from Italy!

Most drivers are unfamiliar with the Bridgestone control tyre used by all competitors which poses one problem, made more difficult by the fact that the race has been lengthened by five laps to 25, by which time tyre wear on this sandy, abrasive circuit, will have become critical.