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The MotoGP Court of Appeals will not reach a decision by this evening with regard to the legitimacy Ducati's "spoon", but a verdict is expected on Monday or Tuesday.
The federal court (presided by its President, Anand Sashidharan, and two judges, Lars Nilsson and Finnish Sakari Vuorensola) started the session at 11:00am. The technical data from both parties were collected during the first phase, starting with Ducati's as the defending party (with Gigi Dall'Igna and Fabiano Sterlacchini) and Aprilia, Honda, KTM and Suzuki (with Massimo Rivola, Alberto Puig, Mike Leitner, and Davide Brivio) as the accusing parties.
The documentation was rather impressive, and it took about 4 hours to examine. The session, with witnesses were heard by the Court of Appeal, ended around 5:30pm. The court wanted to thoroughly examine each document and carefully hear all the opinions of those directly involved before reaching a decision.
The fact that this is the first time in the history of the MotoGP where the Court of Appeal must rule on such a delicate and thorny issue justifies the time it took to conclude the hearing. We all know the reason for the dispute: the judges must decide if the device mounted on the Desmosedici's swingarm in front of the rear wheel generates an aerodynamic load or if it is simply used to cool the tire.
As promised by the FIM, the sentence will be issued before the Grand Prix in Argentina, which will take place next weekend at Termas de Rio Hondo. After having examined the data and having heard the parties and witnesses, the judges will have to convene for a verdict. The first rumors say that the decision of the sentence will be announced this Monday or Tuesday.
