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 and the result was declared with Plato in first, ahead of team-mates Collard and Colin Turkington.

Neal's 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 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.