JJ Lehto

JJ Lehto Born (1966-01-31) 31 January 1966 Formula One World Championship career Nationality Finnish Active years 1989–1994 Teams Onyx, Scuderia Italia, Sauber, Benetton Entries 70 (62 starts) Championships 0 Wins 0 Podiums 1 Career points 10 Pole positions 0 Fastest laps 0 First entry 1989 Portuguese Grand Prix Last entry 1994 Australian Grand Prix 24 Hours of Le Mans career Years 1990–1991, 1995–1997, 1999, 2002–2005 Teams Richard Lloyd Racing, Kremer Racing, Kokusai Kaihatsu, GTC Competition, BMW Motorsport, Team Cadillac, Champion Racing Best finish 1st (1995, 2005) Class wins 2 (1995, 2005)

Jyrki Juhani Järvilehto (Finnish pronunciation: [ˈjyrki ˈjærvilehto]), better known as "JJ Lehto", (born January 31, 1966 in Espoo), is a racing driver from Finland. He won the 24 Hours of Le Mans twice, in 1995 and 2005. He is also a former Formula One driver.

He was a protégé of Finnish 1982 Formula One World Champion Keke Rosberg, who first suggested that Jyrki Järvilehto would abbreviate his name to the more manageable JJ Lehto, much as Rosberg had done before him ("Keke" being derived from Keijo, his own given name).

Early career

Like many racing drivers he began in karts at age 8, winning numerous events, before graduating to Formula Ford at the early age of 15. A switch to single seaters saw him dominate the Scandinavian Formula Ford. He then won the British and European Formula 2000 championship in 1987 and went on to win the coveted British Formula 3 title in 1988. He was driving for Pacific Racing. In 1989 Järvilehto drove in Formula 3000, again for Pacific Racing. The season wasn't successful and he didn't score any podium finishes. Järvilehto didn't participate in the last race which was held in Dijon-Prenois.

Formula One career

In 1989 Lehto tested for Ferrari before making his Formula One debut for the Onyx team. Financial difficulties forced the small team to quit Formula One in the summer of 1990 leaving Lehto free to move to Scuderia Italia, where he remained until the end of the 1992 season. During that time he collected his only podium finish in the 1991 San Marino Grand Prix.

In 1993 Lehto signed for the new Sauber team, who had moved into Formula One from Sports car racing, where he partnered Karl Wendlinger. Despite failing to repeat his 1991 podium result, Lehto scored a respectable 5 points before signing for the front-running Benetton team to partner Michael Schumacher in 1994.

Sadly, when it appeared Lehto was finally to receive his break in Formula One, disaster struck. A testing accident at Silverstone shortly before the beginning of the season forced him to sit out the first two races with an injured neck. Lehto made his return at the ill-fated 1994 San Marino Grand Prix, in which Roland Ratzenberger and Ayrton Senna were killed. Lehto was good friends with Ratzenberger. They had dined together on the previous evening and traveled to the Imola track together. Lehto's neck was all but recovered and he was constantly in pain. In that race, Lehto's Benetton stalled on the starting grid and was ploughed into by Pedro Lamy's Lotus.

Benetton were fighting for the constructors title in 1994, and despite a sixth place finish in Canada, Lehto lasted only four races before once more being replaced by Jos Verstappen, who the team felt was in better form at the time. Lehto made two more appearances for Benetton while Schumacher was suspended in the latter stages of the season, but by now, with his confidence terminally damaged, it was clear that Lehto's Formula One career was effectively over. Benetton replaced him with Briton Johnny Herbert. Lehto was then drafted in to the Sauber team for the final two events of the 1994 season, races which would be his last in Formula One.

Post-Formula One career

After his Formula One career stalled, and advised by his manager Keke Rosberg, Lehto joined the German Touring Car Championship, DTM, in 1995 and 1996. Even though rated highly, victories eluded him, but this loss was probably made up by his successes in GT and sports car racing.

An ex-Lehto McLaren F1 GTR

He was a late addition to the 1995 edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans in a McLaren F1 GTR, but he won the race outright, at his third attempt, sharing the car with Yannick Dalmas and Masanori Sekiya. Lehto was an integral part of the win, gaining the lead for the team by driving a few stints during the rainy night. While others were driving cautiously, Lehto was seen to be sliding the car, lapping at times 30sec faster than everyone else. He had three more guest appearances in the same car the next year, winning another race, before he got picked up by BMW to join the factory squad in the inaugural FIA GT season, partnering the talented Steve Soper. Even though success came initially easily (a highlight must surely have been winning in front of his home crowd at the Thunder In Helsinki event), the might of Mercedes-Benz caught up with the McLarens and left Lehto conceding the title to former DTM rival Bernd Schneider.

After an unsuccessful 1998 campaign as a Mercedes-Benz factory driver in the American-based single-seater CART series with Team Hogan, Lehto stayed States-side but returned to the BMW camp, which entered their V12 LMR sportscar racer in the American Le Mans Series, ALMS. Even though he ended up winning four races, Lehto lost the title on the account of a formality (he wasn't awarded the points gained for winning the 12 Hours of Sebring because he didn't have an American racing license back then). 2000 proved less successful as the near-unbeatable Audi R8 entered the scene.

BMW and Lehto stayed in the ALMS series, but stepped down to the GT-class with the controversial M3 GTR. The team was virtually unbeatable but Lehto lost out in the championship to the driver he shared the car with, Jörg Müller, as the latter had more fastest laps and laps in the lead to his name.

He found the M3 already not fast enough to his liking, so it was not surprising when Lehto turned down BMW's offer to join them in the European Touring Car Championship (ETCC) the following year, having to race a near standard 320i tin-top racer. 2002 started with unemployment, but he was picked up by Cadillac as an addition to their Northstar LMP sportscar programme at Le Mans and in the ALMS series. Although the car wasn't on the pace of the Audi R8s or Panoz LMPs, the car's fortunes did seem to turn for the better when it started to notch up regular podium finishes in the second half of the year. Cadillac's mother company General Motors pulled the plug on the project, leaving Lehto again without a job if it hadn't been for Champion Racing, who offered him a drive in their Audi R8.

JJ Lehto at 2005 Petit Le Mans.

Lehto won four times in 2003 (including the prestigious Petit Le Mans event at Road Atlanta), but it wasn't until the factory Audi squad left the ALMS series that he was finally able to reap full rewards in 2004 and score his first championship success since his 1988 title in the British Formula 3, picking up six victories on the way.

A disappointing second half of the 2005 season prevented him from scoring double championship success, but nonetheless he managed to end his last year in full-time racing on an impressive note when winning both the 12 Hours of Sebring and the 24 Hours of Le Mans again.

In 2006 it was announced the Solaroli team would purchase two Porsche RS Spyders to be entered in the ALMS series. One car would be driven by Lehto, partnered by Johnny Herbert. However, even though getting confirmation about the deal going through in early 2007, nothing ever materialized.

Lehto did show up at the 2007 edition of the 24 Hours of Daytona to team up with Colin Braun and Max Papis in the Krohn Racing Pontiac-Riley. His first participation in the event wasn't a success though as the car suffered from misfire, ending up with it, after having spent quite its share in the pits, finishing 17th only.

In 2008 he has made an unexpected return to the race tracks when he showed up at the Malaysian Grand Prix to drive in the Speedcar support race, taking over the #90 car previously vacated by Narain Karthikeyan.

In 2001 Lehto joined Finnish television as an expert race commentator and has remained a mainstay at MTV3's Finnish Formula One race broadcasts (and also for the pay-channel MTV3 MAX) until 2010, alongside Oskari Saari.

Manslaughter conviction

The scene of the boating accident

On June 17, 2010, Lehto was involved in a boating accident in Ekenäs. The accident happened when the boat carrying Lehto and his friend, whose identity was not released, hit the base of a bridge. Lehto was injured and his passenger was killed in the accident. Lehto was drunk at the time. Later in August, 7 Päivää-magazine reported that Lehto had attended his friend's funeral. Lehto has not issued official interviews or statements since the incident. In January 2011, Iltasanomat reported that the police investigations had determined that no-one besides Lehto could have been driving the boat at the time of the accident.

Lehto faced charges of negligent homicide, reckless driving and driving under the influence. Regardless, Lehto made a return to sportscasting on the Finnish sports-channel UrhoTV, commentating on a DTM event. On December 14, 2011, Lehto was found guilty of drunk sailing and negligent homicide, and sentenced to prison for two years and four months. Lehto denied all of the charges and announced that he intended to launch an appeal.

Racing record

Complete International Formula 3000 results

(key)

Year	Entrant	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	DC	Points
1989	Pacific Racing	SIL DSQ	VAL Ret	PAU 4	JER 6	PER Ret	BRH Ret	BIR Ret	SPA 5	BUG Ret	DIJ	14th	6

Complete Formula One results

(key)

Year	Entrant	Chassis	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	WDC	Pts
1989	Moneytron Onyx	Onyx ORE-1	Ford	BRA	SMR	MON	MEX	USA	CAN	FRA	GBR	GER	HUN	BEL	ITA	POR DNPQ	ESP Ret	JPN DNPQ	AUS Ret	NC	0
1990	Monteverdi Onyx Formula One	Onyx ORE-1	Ford	USA DNQ	BRA DNQ															NC	0
		Onyx ORE-2	Ford			SMR 12	MON Ret	CAN Ret	MEX Ret	FRA DNQ	GBR DNQ	GER NC	HUN DNQ	BEL	ITA	POR	ESP	JPN	AUS
1991	Scuderia Italia SpA	Dallara BMS-191	Judd	USA Ret	BRA Ret	SMR 3	MON 11	CAN Ret	MEX Ret	FRA Ret	GBR 13	GER Ret	HUN Ret	BEL Ret	ITA Ret	POR Ret	ESP 8	JPN Ret	AUS 12	12th	4
1992	Scuderia Italia SpA	Dallara BMS-192	Ferrari	RSA Ret	MEX 8	BRA 8	ESP Ret	SMR 11	MON 9	CAN 9	FRA 9	GBR 13	GER 10	HUN DNQ	BEL 7	ITA 11	POR Ret	JPN 9	AUS Ret	NC	0
1993	Sauber AG	Sauber C12	Sauber	RSA 5	BRA Ret	EUR Ret	SMR 4	ESP Ret	MON Ret	CAN 7	FRA Ret	GBR 8	GER Ret	HUN Ret	BEL 9	ITA Ret	POR 7	JPN 8	AUS Ret	13th	5
1994	Mild Seven Benetton Ford	Benetton B194	Ford	BRA	PAC	SMR Ret	MON 7	ESP Ret	CAN 6	FRA	GBR	GER	HUN	BEL	ITA 9	POR Ret	EUR			24th	1
	PP Sauber AG	Sauber C13	Mercedes															JPN Ret	AUS 10

Complete 24 Hours of Le Mans results

Year	Result	Team	Car	Class
1990	Ret	Richard Lloyd Racing / Italya Sport	Porsche 962C GTi	C1
1991	9	Porsche Kremer Racing	Porsche 962CK6	C2
1992	DNP
1993	DNP
1994	DNP
1995	1	Kokusai Kaihatsu Racing	McLaren F1 GTR	GT1
1996	9	Gulf Racing / GTC Racing	McLaren F1 GTR	GT1
1997	Ret	Team BMW Motorsport / BMW Team Schnitzer	McLaren F1 GTR	GT1
1998	DNP
1999	Ret	Team BMW Motorsport / BMW Team Schnitzer	BMW V12 LMR	LMP
2000	DNP
2001	DNP
2002	12	Team Cadillac	Cadillac Northstar LMP02	LMP900
2003	3	Champion Racing	Audi R8	LMP900
2004	3	ADT Champion Racing	Audi R8	LMP1
2005	1	ADT Champion Racing	Audi R8	LMP1

American open–wheel racing results

(key)

CART

Year	Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	Rank	Points
1998	Hogan Racing	MIA 14	MOT Ret	LBH 18	NZR 16	RIO 10	STL 9	MIL Ret	DET Ret	POR Ret	CLE Ret	TOR Ret	MIS Ret	MDO 15	ROA Ret	VAN 8	LS Ret	HOU 10	SRF 5	FON Ret	20th	25

Helmet

Lehto's Helmet was blue with some white lines in the chin area and 2 lines in the middle with diagonal stripes (also red) with 3 Tricolor Feathers on the top, then in Scuderia Italia, his helmet became white with the lines red and black and the top became Plain and Black, In Benetton the top became Blue and White Checkered and the lines were blue white and red. Heikki Kovalainen's helmet was inspired on Lehto's helmet (the stripes on the sides)