Allan Simonsen's Dutch F3 challenge.

Following an invitation to join the Van Amersfoort Formula 3 team for the Marlboro Masters at Zandvoort, Denmark's Allan Simonsen was under no illusions as to the enormity of the mountain to climb if he was to qualify for the Marlboro Masters race against the cream of the F3 world.

Because of the late opportunity provided by Van Amersfoort, Simonsen had no opportunity to acquaint himself with a Formula 3 car in the dry until the first untimed session on Friday.

The format of the Marlboro Masters provides two untimed free practice sessions of half an hour each on the Friday and two half hour qualifying sessions on the Saturday. Because of the large entry of 45 cars, qualifying is split into two sessions for even numbered cars and sessions for odd numbered cars.

Friday's two free practice sessions quickly established the size of the task with the standard being set by British Formula 3 Championship leader Takumo Sato being quickest. Allan Simonsen made good progress and without any spins and gained the maximum track time during the two sessions.

Odd numbered cars opened the qualifying Saturday morning with Benoit Treluyer emerging fastest in his Signature team Dallara Renault. In the second qualifying session, the first for even numbered cars, Sato set a sensational time a full six tenths quicker than second quickest Andre Lotterer. Still learning the car and the track, and Bridgstones somewhat quirky tyres, Simonsen finished the session second from last some 2.9 seconds behind Sato, and 2.3 seconds behind Lotterer.

These two qualifying sessions would prove to be the fastest of the day, as the second sessions for both groups proved markedly slower. For Simonsen this was less than ideal as he was improving with every session, and so it proved for Simonsen in his second qualifying session made a tremendous improvement of nearly a second over the earlier session to end up just on two seconds from Sato. Sato's 1m 33.9s was over three tenths slower than his first session qualifying time. In reality this meant an improvement for Simonsen against Sato of 1.2 seconds.

It was an impressive performance which promoted him to 19th in the session. Although the fastest nineteen cars from the session qualified for the race, the faster times from the first session meant that he did not make the cut.

It was of course a disappointment for Simonsen and the team, but Van Amersffort were delighted with Simonsen's performance and the incredible progress made in four short sessions together. Fritz Van Amersfoort said: "We always knew it was going to be a very difficult job for Allan to qualify here, but the job he did was very, very impressive, and I don't say that lightly. It is a pity we could not have had just a little more time, as I'm sure he could qualified well."

While the non qualification is disappointing it is also a source of great encouragement as when Simonsen can make such big steps it shows how much more he can improve.