Lenovo Ducati's Jack Miller has shouldered the blame for Sunday's crash at the Portimao MotoGP round, saying it was a silly and costly error.

The Australian has picked up just 14 points from the opening three races of the 2021 season and his quest for the title was not helped on Sunday when he went down on lap five.

"Completely my fault. Just a really silly mistake, a costly mistake. It just was right at the peak point in the brake pressure. You always get a spike and then it sort of levels off. It was right at that point," said Miller, speaking at the track.

"Aleix braked semi-early and all weekend I’ve been one of the later ones there and I just misread the thing and I had to use a little extra pressure I guess and tucked it.

"I just was kind of getting in the rhythm of things in the race and it was one of those ones where you sort of slide along going, 'what just happened?' Then the magnitude of the situation really hits you.

I think many of us made mistakes today. The track was not easy out there. But my crash was simply my fault. I just grabbed too much brake at the wrong point in time and the grip wasn’t there.

"For sure, I’ve had now three crashes this year. It’s not bad, but for sure I don’t want to have any and you want to finish as many races as possible.

"We’re in the trenches at the minute. I’m trying to dig my way out.

"It’s not easy. We all want to be winning. We all want to be on top. In reality it’s not always like this. It’s difficult, but I’ve been in worse positions in my career and dug my way out.

"We’ve got the pace. We’ve got the speed. We know that. I’ve just got to put it all together. It’s just one of those things. I’m really disappointed for myself, for the team. I thank them because they’ve been mega through all of this. I just want to do better by them.

"It will come. It’s only three races in. we’ve made work really hard for ourselves, but the tables will turn."