Wow, just wow. I'm very pleased to finish on the podium in Monaco! I'm pretty elated after that race, the result made up for my mistakes last race in Spain.
Qualifying went terrible, my worst qualifying session I've ever had as pretty much I started my first hot lap and clipped the inside corner at Casino which destroyed the car and ended my session with 14 minutes left. No time set and last place on the grid. So I had to wait and watch the rest of the session which saw everyone set a time and leave me in last. Totally my own mistake and I had attacked the first lap far too cautiously that I took so little speed that I turned in too much. Its ironic that I was trying to put some clean laps in and avoid a crash by pushing too hard but I ended up pushing too little and crashing as a result.
At this point I decided it was going to be a long race and got myself in the mindset of just being patient and avoiding crashing. I opted for the Prime tyres to start the race on, because I know an accident was highly likely in the early laps and I was likely to have suffered minor damage that would have cost a lot of time in a pit stop replacing front wings, etc. I felt it was better to run long and drop all the race pressure so that my in and out laps for my potentially slower pit stop were easier.
My start was great, I'd actually not given it full beans just so I could wait and let the field flow through turn 1 but even then I was still going fast enough to overtake NERVUS-PL and someone else that I can't remember right now. In turn 1 there was 4 (!!!!) drivers going into the turn, so I made it 5 and cut into the inside of Baumi27 to end up 6th or 7th after the first corner. 11th to 7th

. I ended up behind kcheeb for the rest of lap 1 until the drop into Portier, where someone in the Red Bull had spun and kcheeb stopped dead in front of me. Apologies to kcheeb as I slammed the brakes on but still touched and spun him slightly, which led to tombrooks shunting me behind too and giving me the unfair 10 second penalty for blocking which stayed till the end of the race. I got going again but NERVUS had taken advantage of the mess at Portier and was ahead going through the tunnel, but braked way way too early for the chicane and I got past again on the brakes.
I was then running in clean air for several laps before catching Baumi27 who had spun at Anthony Noghes. He quickly caught me back up on the following lap and I decided to let him past at Casino as I knew he was much faster than me, he was my teammate and I didn't want the added distraction of keeping track of him. He quickly pulled out a gap and overtook mikethehockeyfan. At this point I was running 7th again as tombrooks had pitted for a wing (I think), kcheeb had spun somewhere and NERVUS and jordy were a good way behind.
I caught mikethehockeyfan pretty fast in the following laps but was stuck behind him. The next 20 laps were a nightmare, because mike was suffering from serious lag issues where his car was bouncing all over the track, into the air sometimes! It made it impossible to judge where he really was and how much I should brake, so I decided to keep conservative and pray his richochet-ing car didn't hit me! Eventually Shaggy came around to lap us and I let him past after the Nouvelle chicane and followed him through the final sector. mikethehockeyfan decided to let Shaggy past on the inside into the final corner but in doing so let me past too! I couldn't believe my luck and tried to build a gap and keep mike behind me but eventually made one of several braking errors into St Devote and had to use the escape road, which let him through again. I spent several laps following him until he eventually made a second mistake, going wide into Mirabeau. I then held a small lead over him until he span at the final corner and then later had to pit, leaving me on my own.
During this time there was also a moment where DarkPSI and pipeslice caught me in sector 3. I decided to let them past just after Rascasse by staying wide and letting them through on the inside, which was kind of accidental as Dark had already chosen that line to overtake anyway. Unfortunately this seemed to catch out pipeslice who hit me but no harm caused it seemed. Apologies to pipeslice if it did - but I had no where to go after Dark was on my inside.
From then on it was simply a matter of not making serious mistakes, having my last pit stop and finishing the race. During this time there was no less than 6 or 7 retirements both in front and behind me which is what eventually elevated me from 6th to 3rd place. I made a few more mistakes, running wide at Nouvelle and having to use the escape road a few times at St Devote but nothing serious.
All in all a decent Monaco GP for me, I kind of enjoyed the fight with mikethehockeyfan but it wasn't really fun with his car flying around all over the place! I also had a heart-in-mouth moment when I came out of the tunnel one time to find kcheeb's Ferrari going very slowly down to the chicane and I ended up having brake wide and flying through the chicane!
Qualified: N/A Started: 11th
Finished: 3rd
Average race laptime: 1'19.xxx
Biggest mistake: Destroying my car in qualifying, getting involved in the shunt at Portier lap 1, several missed braking points at St Devote.
Favourite moment: Going 5-abreast into turn 1, going from 11th to eventually 6th, crossing the line for the podium

.
So er, yeah, ignore the penalty on the results screen guys, as it was because of the kind of humourous multi-shunt at Portier on lap 1. Reminded me of Irvine-Salo-Hakkinen 1996.