Jorge Martin has retained his third place result in the Austrian MotoGP Sprint Race at Spielberg despite being punished by stewards for triggering a collision at Turn 1 that forced three riders into retirement.

Involving seven riders in total, most fingers of blame were pointed at Martin for causing the incident after choosing a tight inside line on the run to the right-hander and braking late.

With the field pinching at the apex from a more conventional angle, the presence of Martin appeared to catch out Miguel Oliveira as he turned in, leading to contact that would push the RNF Aprilia rider back the other way to start a domino effect among those to his left.

Of the seven riders involved, three - Marco Bezzecchi, Johann Zarco and Oliveira - were eventually forced to retire, while the other three - Maverick Vinales, Fabio Quartararo and Enea Bastianini - stayed on but were delayed.

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Martin, on the other hand, managed to escape the melee, going on to finish third but under an investigation that would be debated in the hours after the race.

Stewards eventually returned a verdict that indeed blamed Martin, but resisted imposing a penalty on his result because of his otherwise clean record so far this season. Instead, he will be forced to take a long-lap penalty in Sunday’s main Austrian MotoGP race.

"Following the Penalty Protocols issued to teams, this action was deemed to be an incident of Type 3: Causing a crash whilst overtaking. Overly ambitious and/or aggressive resulting in another rider crashing (n any session). As a first offence for the season, the appropriate penalty in this case is a Long Lap Penalty."

Martin, for his part, maintained his innocence after the race, instead suggesting he was the rider who was hit from the outside erroneously.

“I think I was on a good line,” he argued. “I didn’t touch anybody, I think someone touched me going into the corner from the outside so I think it’s not my fault.”

Despite his ‘clean record’, the pile-up wasn’t the only incident Martin was investigated for after he was involved in a scuffle with Luca Marini that resulted in contact and a retirement for the VR46 Racing rider. However, the stewards ruled ‘no further investigation’ before the end of the race.