Lehto cleared of boat crash charges

30/11/2012

JJ Lehto, who contested 70 Grands Prix between 1989 and 1994, has been cleared of all charges relating to a boat accident in 2010 in which a friend was killed.

At the Court of Appeal in Turku today it was ruled that it was not clear whether Lehto or his friend had been driving the boat when it hit a bridge support in 2010, both men having been drunk at the time of the accident.

In 2011, Lehto, who raced for Onyx, Scuderia Italia, Sauber and Benetton, scoring a podium finish in the 1991 San Marino Grand Prix, was sentenced to 28 months in jail by a district court which claimed the victim's injuries were compatible with having been a passenger, meaning that Lehto was driving. However, the former F1 racer appealed the sentence insisting he had been sitting in the back of the boat at the time of the crash.

Picture credit: Tomh009 Wikipedia