In a chaotic and controversial sprint race which saw Jorge Martin ultimately claim the victory, Ducati's Marc Marquez was involved in a first lap tangle with VR46's Di Giannantonio.

Diggia, who secured his second-straight pole position in COTA after a solid qualifying session, was pushed wide at the first corner by Pedro Acosta and dropped back behind Marquez into fourth place.

After a tight but fair move in the first sector, Diggia then led Marquez as the pair headed down the long COTA back straight, at which point Marquez went for a 'payback' move into the braking zone and lost the front end - taking down the unfortunate Diggia with him.

The incident was reviewed by the stewards after the race and deemed unsporting enough that Marquez will have to take a long-lap penalty on Sunday.

The Spaniard already starts down in P6, despite penalties for Marco Bezzecchi and Luca Marini for impeding him in qualifying. It seems Marquez will truly have to pull off a career-highlight performance in order to get a win in the main race.

The Marquez-Diggia incident wasn't the only controversy of the race. After Marco Bezzecchi crashed out of second place, his teammate Jorge Martin then hunted down Bagnaia with a sensational but borderline dangerous overtake on the very last lap.

He then suffered a 100mph crash while doing a wheelie in celebration on the cooldown lap.