upper side panels - inner fastener

So on the 1199, this used to be one of those plastic reusable snap thingies. The 1299 parts fiche does not show what is actually used - a long M4 screw (2.5mm hex drive) with a large washer, a spacer, and a wellnut in the fairing.

What a wonderful pain in the ... fastener! No idea why that spacer was stuck in there as well. I talked to the parts guy at my dealer, who apparently heard from someone at a different dealer to just use the screw that holds the nose fairing in (part#77244203B). So I had two of those ordered....yeah, those are M5 screws.

Well, they do fit, if you change the wellnuts to M5 wellnuts and cut them to size. I also for the life of me cannot understand the purpose of the spacers, other than preventing the inner plastic pieces from aligning flush with each other, so I've now just left them out.

Any idea why they went with wellnuts, where the inner fastener for the lower fairing is a normal M5 fairing screw with a clip nut behind it?

I've cursed that one a couple times myself. The wellnut doesn't make much sense.

Some discussion on this matter can be found here:
http://ducati1299.com/ducati-1299/21706-can-someone-identify-bolts-should-go-here.html

Upper fairing spacers

Guys, after hours trying to work out where the gold coloured spacers go (the manual is useless,shows it but doesn't say where it goes)
I'm hoping I'm going to save you all from the frustration of trying to locate it,
It actually sits in the inner black plastic fairing you see when you release the top four outside fairing screws and the one top inner screw to gently pull back the outer fairing panel (be gentle here as all you need is enough to get the spacer in between the inner and outer panels.
The location is right at the top right hand corner of the panel , just to the right of the fastener which sits above the Panigale word on the right hand fairing
(If you are trying to locate the left hand side, it's above where the number 2 is of the 1299 logo.
If you gently pull the panel back, the spacer sits in the resess of the black inner fairing panel (keeps popping out so a little touch of grease will hold it in place)
It's actually there to sit behind the rubber grommet which you screw into from the inner side when securing the inner panel top screw.
The important part is, DONT forget about using this spacer as some have suggested- it's there to stop the outer panel being pulled in too tight by the inner top screw, If it's not in place or you decide to leave it out, the fairing panel will distort at the front and the paint will rub off over time (plus it doesn't look flush from a head on front view)
Good luck, if you need anymore help,just let me know.

It's great that the side fairings come off of the Panigale so much quicker than other bikes but it's a right old headache taking the nose off. The 1299 nose plastics do fit together better and probably less likely to break the fasteners on the side like it always did on the 1199 but why they chose these different screws is beyond me. It's like they had some left over screws they wanted to use up.