Aussie Josh Brookes struggled to break into the points at Silverstone's WSBK round on Sunday.

Australian wildcard riders Josh Brookes and Billy McConnell experienced difficult weekends in the British round of the 2010 Superbike World Championship, struggling to meet pre-race expectations against the world’s best.

Brookes, who has been in scintillating form in the British Superbike Championship this year, rode his HM Plant Honda to 16-12 finishes in the pair of WSBK races at Silverstone on Sunday, disappointed with the result after carrying high expectations into the event.

Brookes made some setting changes ahead of the second race he was able to steadily move up the order, passing Noriyuki Haga in the closing stages to finish 12th in the highlight of his weekend.

“The weekend didn’t get off to the best start for me, as we had an engine problem on Friday in the first practice session and that cost me time on track,” Brookes explained. “In the second session we continued working on the set-up and our times continued to improve but we were playing catch-up as what worked at Snetterton for the BSB round wasn’t working here.

“We worked really hard with different shock and fork settings as this track is so different from any other we have raced on this season so we had to really get our heads down and make changes to see how they would affect us. We did continually improve though each time we were out on circuit and then the second race with 12th was better than the first, so we were making steps forward.

“It gives us a better idea of what to expect later in the season when we are back for BSB and we have to look towards the podium again at Brands Hatch next weekend.”

For South Australian McConnell, 15th place in the World Supersport race was his result after an incident-filled affair on Sunday afternoon.

“I am disappointed for sure as in the first start I was up to seventh on the opening lap before the red flag and that was awesome,” the British Supersport contender said. “On the restart I had a bit of a coming together with Alex [Lowes] and it wiped my boot out, so I shut off the throttle and then I was pushed down the order by the time we got to the first turn.

“It was then a real battle for me to make up the places, so I had to get my head down and just keep at it. There are a lot of different things that we have picked up on this weekend and we can only learn from them, some of which will make the difference at Brands Hatch next weekend.

“We are going to have a bit of a brainstorm and then we aim to come out fighting at the British round next weekend.”