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Finnish racing driver (born 1966)

Jyrki Juhani Järvilehto (; born 31 January 1966), better known as "JJ Lehto", is a Finnish racing driver. 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 should abbreviate his name to the more manageable JJ Lehto.

Like many racing drivers Lehto 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, driving for Pacific Racing. In 1989 Lehto drove in Formula 3000, again for Pacific Racing. The season was not successful and he failed to score any podium finishes. He did not participate in the last race which was held in Dijon Prenois.

In 1989 Lehto tested for Ferrari before making his Formula One debut for the Onyx team as a late season replacement for Bertrand Gachot. 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 Steve Soper. Even though success came initially easily, including a win 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 Stateside 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 was not awarded the points gained for winning the 12 Hours of Sebring because he did not have an American racing license at that time). 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 was not 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 had not been for Champion Racing, who offered him a drive in their Audi R8. Lehto won four times in 2003 (including the prestigious Petit Le Mans event at Road Atlanta), but it was not 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 Three, 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 materialised. 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 was not a success though as the car suffered from a misfire, and after having spent a long time in the pits, finished 17th. In 2008 he 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 No. 90 car previously vacated by Narain Karthikeyan. In 2001 Lehto joined Finnish television as an expert race commentator and remained a mainstay at MTV3's Finnish Formula One race broadcasts (and also for the pay channel MTV3 MAX) until 2010, alongside Oskari Saari.

On 17 June 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 in a canal. Lehto was injured and the other man was killed in the accident. Lehto had been drinking throughout the day and was heavily intoxicated at the time of the accident. In January 2011, Ilta Sanomat reported that the police investigations had concluded 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 of the pending trial, Lehto made a return to sportscasting on the Finnish sports channel UrhoTV, commentating on a DTM event. On 14 December 2011, the District Court found Lehto guilty of drunk sailing and negligent homicide, and sentenced him to two years and four months in prison.

Year Entrant Class Chassis Engine 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Rank Points Ref 1999 BMW Motorsport LMP BMW V12 LMR BMW S70 6.0 L V12 SEB ATL MOS SON POR PET MON LSV 4th 123 2000 BMW Motorsport LMP BMW V12 LMR BMW S70 6.0 L V12 SEB CHA SIL NÜR SON MOS TEX ROS PET MON LSV ADE 6th 220 2001 BMW Motorsport GT BMW M3 BMW 3.2L I6 TEX 2nd 180 BMW M3 GTR BMW 4.0L V8 SEB DON JAR SON POR MOS MID MON PET 2002 Team Cadillac LMP900 Cadillac Northstar LMP02 Cadillac Northstar 4.0L Turbo V8 SEB SON MID AME WAS TRO MOS MON MIA PET 13th 101 2003 ADT Champion Racing LMP900 Audi R8 Audi 3.6L Turbo V8 SEB ATL SON TRO MOS AME MON MIA PET 3rd 163 2004 ADT Champion Racing LMP1 Audi R8 Audi 3.6L Turbo V8 SEB MID LIM SON POR MOS AME PET MON 1st 164 2005 ADT Champion Racing LMP1 Audi R8 Audi 3.6L Turbo V8 SEB ATL MID LIM SON POR AME MOS PET MON 3rd 148