The grid gets away clean through turn 1

That was way too much freaking fun.

Been practicing a 2 stopper all week, played around with the idea of a 3 stopper this morning, but without enough time to test the changes in handling, I stayed with the safer 2 stopper. Besides, I wasn't that much faster on the lighter fuel. I've never been very good at hotlapping, so I tend to go with heavier fuel loads anyway. Also, it's Montreal, where it's not the easiest to pass, and attrition is usually high. So i stuck with the safe and steady approach.

Qual was okay, put in a few good okay laps on max boost.

Took it easy on the first few laps, settled into a nice rhythm behind Darren. For the first 15 laps or so, I followed Darren around the track. I had more wing it looked like, as I would close way up on his gearbox in the chicanes and all of sector 2. While he would pull away on the lighter fuel load and low wings on the straights. That made it real hard for me to attempt a pass without a dive bomb, and it was way too early in the race for that kind of "fun". :)

Stayed that way until Darren got a little loose coming out of turn 2, and I set my sights on just running clean. With people having problems and dropping out, I was shocked to look down and see position = 4!!

Pitted on lap 22, one lap earlier than I intended, but my front left was looking pretty torn up (I was on softs), that last little red square kept screaming at me to pit so I went in one lap early. Came out and settled in for the chase with Jon. With him on a 3 stopper, I knew I had to try and push to keep the gap close and not let him get away. Jon pitted on lap 32 and came out right on my tail.

That's when it all went wrong. :) Coming up on a lap car into the hairpin, he spun, and I jammed on the brakes to avoid damaging my car. That let Jon sneak by. So I wanted to try and get that spot back, and was pushing hard, when the next lap I almost killed Conor. :0

I hear the blue flag spotter dude coming down the start/finish line. Take a peek in the rear view mirror to see how far back Conor is, and when I look back up, I had blown my braking mark and locked up the fronts. Which in retrospect was bad, because I should have just straightlined it through the asphalt. Instead I slid sideways through turn 1/2, and only Conor's skill in car control saved us both from a DNF. :)

And it got worse, when on my in lap for my 2nd stop, the front left blew up. Guess I waited one lap too long to pit. LOL! That was hilarious, sparks were flying up from the front left rim all over the place, and the spotter was screaming at me over the radio that I have a puncture. No sh!t, haha. I was lucky that I made it back to the pits, thankfully it didn't blow until the hairpin, so i didn't have to do any turning on a flat left front. Then i goofed and accidentally hit the speed limiter button when pulling out of my pit spot when changing the LCD and had to do a drive through. :D Which left the gap to Jon to be 18 secs or so, and there was no way to catch him until his brakes unfortunately blew up on him.

Somehow I still ended up in 4th. I think I remembered why I like Montreal. :) Probably won't make Fuji, but Nurburg is another one of my favs. See you guys there.