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Rally Portugal Spectator Injured, Taken to Hospital

Rally Portugal started off this week in a rather spectacular fashion, after the very shakedown of the event witnessed a major crash from Monster Ford World Rally Team's Ken Block on Wednesday. And the drama continued on Thursday, with Mads Ostberg's Ford Fiesta RS WRC also involved in a minor crash of his own. However, this latter incident also involves an injured spectator.

The first stage of the 2011 event was held on a street course in the capital Lisbon on Thursday, and Ostberg only got to drive a few meters before losing control of his car and bumping into a wall.

According to a report from Autosport, the Norwegian driver understeered when approaching the very first corner (right-hander) of the stage and damaged his wheel. When braking at the end of the following straight, the tire and rim took off and were projected into the crowd.

According to a source from within the event, a spectator was injured in the process and was immediately taken to the hospital for further medical checks.

A spectator was treated for shock after the incident and has been taken to hospital in Lisbon for some checks,” said the source, who didn't mention anything else regarding the condition of the spectator at this time.

I can't believe I have been so stupid!” admitted Ostberg at the end of the stage, which he completed on 3 wheels and got him to lose more than 2 minutes in the overall classification.

Mikko Hirvonen was the driver to emerge on top of the timing reports on Thursday, after topping the Lisbon superspecial by a 1.3 second advantage to Citroen's Sebastien Loeb. Petter Solberg and Sebastien Ogier followed the reigning world champion, ahead of Jari-Matti Latvala and Federico Villagra.

After 2 stages on Friday, held on gravel, Hirvonen still leads by 2.4 seconds from Loeb, while Latvala is 3rd fastest, 4.8 seconds off the pace of his teammate. The latest updates comes at the end of SS3, with Citroen duo Sebastien Loeb and Sebastien Ogier finishing with the exact same time on top of the timing reports. Ogier is currently 4th, 5.1 seconds behind Hirvonen.
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