Andrea Iannone’s lawyer believes his client’s doping case will be over within two months which should enable the Aprilia MotoGP star to be back for the first races of the season.

The Italian is about to launch an appeal against his 18-month ban with the Court for Arbitration in Sport and brief Antonio de Rensis thinks there may not even be a hearing when the panel sees the evidence.

“By Monday or Tuesday of next week at the latest we will lodge an appeal to CAS with the grounds for the first-instance judgement,” said de Rensis.

“We will certainly file the appeal by May 15, at which point the FIM has 20 days to respond to our arguments. After that, the CAS judges take the files in hand and if they establish that there is no need for a hearing, I trust that in two months we can reach a decision.

“If CAS should decide for a hearing, there would be a delay, but not by much more than a month, a month and a half at worst. But, given the grounds, I believe they can decide based on the documents without calling a hearing.

“In the best-case scenario at the end of July we could have a ruling, in the worst case immediately after the summer. In short, we trust that by the time the championship will probably start, Andrea has already had the final ruling.”