Sep.12 (GMM) As the espionage affair approaches its crescendo, the formula one world should be able to exhale its bated breath late on Thursday, according to a well-placed insider.

Hermann Tomczyk, Germany's motor sport chief and an FIA vice-president, revealed on Wednesday that the World Motor Sport Council will probably publish its decision about the saga - and a possible sanction for McLaren - within hours of the hearing in Paris.

He said the meeting would begin at 9.30am local time at Paris' Place de la Concorde; the headquarters of motor sport's governing body.

"I am counting on a verdict during the course of the afternoon," he told the news agency Sport-Informations-Dienst.

And Tomczyk, a member of the 26-man FIA body, promised: "The World Motor Sport Council will contemplate its decision very thoroughly."

With the protracted affair now occupying regular space in the sports pages of the world, BMW motor sport director Mario Theissen called for a swift conclusion.

"This is not something with which you can use for your advertising campaigns," the German humorously remarked.

More seriously, he added: "Not only the teams involved are infected, but also formula one as a whole.

"So on Thursday I hope that everything is completely, swiftly and clearly clarified."

From a drivers' perspective, however, Australia's Mark Webber predicted that the scandal will soon be forgotten.

"We've had ugly scenarios in the sport in the past," the Red Bull driver told International Herald Tribune. "People forget it. A week of testing (and) it's gone."