The magistrate Antonio Costanzo will give his verdict on the death of Ayrton Senna sometime around December 15th-17th, it emerged yesterday as the trial continued in Imola. Team owner Frank Williams, technical director Patrick Head, Formula One designer Adrian Newey and three race officials all face manslaughter charges after Senna's fatal crash at the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix.

The trial resumed yesterday with the summing up of the last of the defence cases, put by Oreste Dominioni, who is representing Williams and Head.

State prosecutor Maurizio Passarini recommended earlier this month that Williams and the three race officials be cleared of the charges, but called for one-year suspended jail sentences against Head and Newey.

Dominioni launched a swingeing five-hour attack on the prosecution case, claiming that Passarini had been let down by his technical advisers, who had provided him with assumptions and not facts.