Ferrari voiced satisfaction on Tuesday after learning it can now go before Formula 1 authorities to argue its case in the spying scandal that has rocked the sport over the last month.
An appeals court of FIA, Formula 1's governing body, is to review the controversial ruling by a FIA panel which last week let McLaren off the spying charges levelled at it.
FIA President Max Mosely said the move was motivated by "the importance of public confidence in the outcome" of the dispute.
In its ruling last Thursday, the FIA World Council admitted McLaren had been in possession of Ferrari data but imposed no penalty, saying there was no evidence that the information had been exploited by the British team.
Ferrari officials were present at the hearing but only as observers and so could not present evidence. Formula 1 rules also prevented the Italian team from appealing the ruling.
A Ferrari official described the decision to hold an appeal hearing, in which both sides could participate, as "sensible".
"FIA correctly believes that Ferrari, the injured party in the affair, must enjoy all the rights of one party in a trial. This was not the case in the World Council hearing," the spokesman said.
The first hearing accepted McLaren's argument that the leaking of Ferrari information boiled down to a case of one rogue employee illegitimately acquiring information for his own purposes.
If Ferrari can prove its claims that several top McLaren officials were aware of the Ferrari information for a number of months, the earlier ruling by the FIA World Council could be overturned.
"The situation would be very serious," Mosely said in a letter to Luigi Macaluso, head of Italian motor-racing authority CSAI.
The letter, in which he announced the appeals hearing, was a reply to a previous letter from Macaluso arguing that the World Council ruling was "difficult to justify".
The CSAI chief took the same view as Ferrari, namely that simply being in possession of secret Ferrari information McLaren was in breach of racing rules and therefore a punishment should be automatic.
RISK OF EXPULSION.
McLaren risks being thrown out of the 2007 championship, and possibly next year's also if the FIA appeals panel finds it guilty of fraudulent behaviour.
Even a milder punishment, such as a points deduction, would be disastrous for McLaren. With the current standings so tight, such a penalty would almost certainly cost it the championship.
McLaren rookie Lewis Hamilton currently leads the drivers' standings, two points ahead of team-mate Fernando Alonso and 11 points clear of Ferrari's Felipe Massa. In the constructor's contest, McLaren lead with 138 points to Ferrari's 111.
The two men at the centre of the spying scandal are Nigel Stepney, Ferrari's former chief engineer, and McLaren's suspended chief designer Mike Coughlan.
Apart from several emails from Stepney, Coughlan is said to have received a 780-page dossier of Ferrari secrets from the fellow Englishman in April this year, soon after the start of the 2007 grand prix season.
Stepney again protested his innocence on Tuesday, denying in a newspaper interview that he had sent information to Coughlan.
"I did not take any designs from Ferrari," Stepney told La Repubblica. "Someone passed on the designs but it wasn't me...someone set me up and that person is still within Ferrari".
Stepney's lawyers said on Friday that the sacked Ferrari technician, who is being probed by Modena prosecutors, was ready to talk to Formula 1 authorities at any time to clarify his position.
As well as leaking secrets to Coughlan, he is also accused of trying to sabotage a Ferrari car before the Monaco Grand Prix by putting powder in the fuel tank.
