Shane Byrne admitted his weekend of damage limitation at the MCE Insurance British Superbike season opener was a somewhat successful one - but he certainly didn't enjoy the challenge.

Treacherous race day conditions contributed to Byrne, reunited with the Paul Bird Motorsport team for the 2012 season, finishing the opening race at Brands Hatch on Monday back in seventh.

Any chance of redemption in race two was washed away by a combination of damp conditions - and oil and fuel spillage from a host of crashes - as the second outing of the afternoon was cancelled.

Having claimed two podium finishes at the corresponding round in Kent last year, Byrne was unsurprisingly smarting about his tough weekend this time round.

But, with arch rivals Tommy Hill - the reigning champion - and Michael Laverty pointless after first-race crashes, Byrne, 35, was able to find some solace.

"It was horrible, it was just as horrific as it looked out there," said Byrne. "We've got some work to do, that is for sure, but it is what it is.

"When I saw Michael (Laverty) go down early on in the race and then Tommy (Hill) go down as well it was clear it was just a case of making sure you stayed on the bike so you could come away with a few points. It was not nice, that is for sure.

"Those two falling in the first race took a bit of pressure off me. I certainly didn't want to come and finish down in seventh, that was dreadful.

"But watching some of the guys who will probably be up there go down, I ended up thinking it wasn't too bad."

• British Eurosport is the Home of Bikes, showing all MotoGP, World Superbike and British Superbike races on Sky channels 410 and 411 and Virgin Media channels 521 and 525 as well as eurosportplayer.co.uk