Good site score, slow start render that includes a 2.5s gap?

[joeams]

Hi Chaps,

I wander if you can help?

I've been tweaking my site to enhance the site score and it is now 96%.

However, the start render is 7.5 seconds which I want to improve. And it appears to include a 'blank' for 2.5 seconds just after the first second where nothing really happens. Any ideas?

http://www.webpagetest.org/result/111214...1/details/

Lastly, the full load time appears to be slowed down by Google Plus code - how much of an issue do you think this is?

Many Thanks

Joe