JJ Lehto to serve time for speedboat accident

Former F1 driver and twice Le Mans winner, JJ Lehto will find himself behind bars if his appeal against a conviction for a speedboat accident that caused the death of one of his friend isn't overturned.

A court in Finland found him guilty of driving the speedboat under intoxication when it struck a bridge support at high speed in a canal.

Lehto's defense is simple, he wasn't driving the boat the time of the accident but the court inclined to disagree with his version of events and has convicted him to two years and four months jail time.

JJ Lehto started his F1 career with the shortlived Onyx team before moving on to Sauber and Finally as Michael Schumacher's partner in Benetton in 1994.

He injured his neck in a testing accident before the start of the season and had to sit it out until the San Marino grand Prix, the one where Roland Ratzenberger and Ayrton Senna was killed.

Ratzenberger was his close friend and they had dinner the night before the accident and this affected Lehto's comeback state of mind.

Things got worse  for him during the weekend as Lehto's Benetton stalled at the start and was plowed by Pedro Lamy's Lotus.

He later made a name for himself in GT racing, winning the 1995 Le Mans in the Team Kokusai Kaihatsu McLaren F1with Yannick Dalmas and Masanori Sekiya.

He won the event again in 2005 in the the Team ADT Audi R8.