Legal procurator Quentin Tanti, who had assisted Martin Bajada in the magisterial inquiry into the Paqpaqli case, took the stand during the Paqpaqli court case and indicated that two foreign Porsche instructors had designed the track on the taxiway used on the day of the incident based on specifications for Porsche 911 GT3’s, not for a Porsche 918 Spyder – the model used by Paul Bailey.

The members of the Paqpaqli Ghall-Istrina organising committee, including TV presenter Tonio Darmanin as well as British millionaire Paul Bailey, were in court today over a crash at the December 2015 event that left 28 people injured. Bailey's Porsche 918 clipped the grass and spun out of control, smashing into inadequate plastic barriers and into the watching crowd. The event, then in its tenth edition, was aimed to raise funds for the Malta Community Chest Fund.

Tanti told the court, presided by Magistrate Aaron Bugeja, that the track was designed for Porsche 911 GT3’s by two foreigners, Frederick Dineef and Thomas Bangma, who were Porsche employees. He explained that the designs included instructions such as top speeds for areas,  braking distance etc. Asked whether any signs were made visible on the actual track however, Tanti said no.

Tanti indicated however, that in its last run the Spyder went into the chicane fast and exited fast. He said that the Spyder has more power than the GT3.

Questions arose as to how he was able to tell the car entered quickly, and Tanti explained that a film showed a few runs prior to the incident, and he was able to tell based on that. It also emerged that Bailey had said he was going at around 170 – 180 km/h prior to the chicane, when the drawing by the two foreign experts indicated 150 km/h should have been the max speed. Again however, Tanti had said there were no markings on the floor to reflect this.

He said that at no point did the two people who designed the track appear incompetent to him.

He said that at the track designers did not tell him anything to the tune that the Porsche 918 should not have been driven on that track. He also said one of the two track designers was present at the event on the day of the incident.

Questions also arose regarding the onboard computers, as Porsche experts who had come to Malta to try and retrieve the data from the on-board car computers were only able to extract encrypted data, and did not have the know-how or the ability to decipher it.

Cross examination of another witness, George Azzopardi, was suspended today, as the magistrate recommended that the man seek legal advice in order for him not to risk incriminating himself.

Azzopardi worked for the office of the President at the time, and took the stand. He was present at the Paqpaqli committee meetings between April and July of that year. He said that he was in charge of coordination between the committee and the Office of the President, however that his role was more of that of an observer, and said that should the committee have required assistance from the Office of the President, they would ask him.

Originally, he was asked a number of generic questions, where he identified that while he was on the committee, discussions on events took place, and generalised discussions on barriers, in the sense that they should be like the previous year should be in place. He said however, that decisions were not finalised while he was there. When questions became more specific, which could result in the witness incriminating himself, the magistrate read the witness his rights, stating that since answering some questions could result in him implicating himself, and thus he witness has a right to refuse answering the questions. Cross-examination was suspended and the witness was advised to seek legal counsel.

Lawyer Stefano Filletti said that this witness is witness, given that the person who filled in for Azzopardi after he stopped sitting on the committee in July of the year in question has been charged, noting that the witness had not been charged.

Also taking the stand, an assistant events officer during the event – David Galea - said that he took most of his instructions from Tonio Darmanin, and his work was mainly on registering applications for the static display and compiling them into an excel sheet. He was employed by the Malta Community Chest Fund.

He said that the event committee had already been set up when he was brought on board months before the event.