SEAT won all three races at the opening round of the Dunlop British Touring Car Championship at Brands Hatch as the event came to a early climax when reigning champion Matt Neal crashed out.

James Thompson took the first two race wins in the SEAT Leon and team-mate Jason Plato, of Oxford, made it a perfect day for the team over the Kent circuit's shorter Indy layout.

But an incident involving the Team Halfords Honda Integra of Neal and Team RAC MG's Rob Collard saw Neal's car end up in the gravel trap during the third race which had to be stopped before the scheduled full distance.

But with 75 per cent of the laps having been completed the result was declared with Plato in first ahead of team-mates Collard and Colin Turkington.

Neals' crash, his first retirement in more than a season of racing put him back in fifth in the current championship standings.

Instead, it is Thompson only contesting a part-season for the SEAT Sport UK team who left the Kent circuit as the championship leader. Second and third are the BTCC's two rising British stars, Team RAC's Colin Turkington (Portadown) and Vauxhall's Tom Chilton, who races for VX Racing based at Greatworth, near Banbury, with Plato in fourth.

The day was a resounding success for SEAT, whose new Leon model, with victory in all three opening rounds of the new season, has shown it will be a major challenger for championship honours in 2006: the Spanish marque also leads both the manufacturers' and teams' championships.

Meanwhile, Turkington and Team RAC are the leaders of the Independents Trophy's Drivers' and Teams' standings. Full results and latest points can be found on the BTCC's official website www.btcc.net