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, which 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 five points before signing for the front-running Benetton team to partner Michael Schumacher in 1994. However, 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. In that race, Lehto's Benetton stalled on the starting grid and was hit 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. He made two more appearances for Benetton while Schumacher was suspended in the latter stages of the season, then replaced with Briton Johnny Herbert. Lehto was then drafted in to the Sauber team for the final two events of the 1994 season, which would be his last in Formula One.
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