Image: Supplied.

An early fall during the Dutch TT ruled Jack Miller out of Sunday contention at Assen, the Red Bull KTM Factory Racing rider admitting ‘a couple of lean degrees too much, too early’ contributed to the crash.

Battling a vibration issue onboard the RC16 on Saturday, Miller qualified 12th and finished 11th in the sprint race, within striking distance of a top nine points-scoring position.

In Sunday’s Dutch TT, Miller elevated to seventh at the completion of the opening lap before disaster stuck at turn one the following time around, crashing out of the race and unable to complete the outing.

“Not the way we wanted to finish the first phase of the season,” said Miller. “I felt good and got a decent start. I ran deep into turn one on the brakes and tried to pull a tight line to square-up and drive out on the exit but it was a couple of lean degrees too much, too early.

“We’ll take the positives. The bike was good again here and we fixed the vibration we had from yesterday with just a couple of little changes. It was a big gain. Anyway, two sprint podiums and a main race podium as well as challenging at the front most of the time: I think it has been a good season so far. Looking forward to the next one.”

Despite the disappointing end to Assen for the Australian, Miller has delivered a solid start to his stint with KTM in the premier class, and enters the European summer break with sprint race podiums at Jerez and the Sachsenring to his credit, also notching a P3 finish at the Spanish GP.