Unresolved

Disparity in qualifying despite similar/better car

What did you try to do?
Expect similar times in qualifying when the cars are comparable (and drivers).

What happened instead?
A noticeable split in the qualifying times (supposedly because of different fuel load during the sim) not justifiable by the car design or drivers.

Did the problem happen while using wi-fi, mobile data, or both?
Both

Did the bug happen in the app, on PC, or both?
Both

What is the model of your device?
game server

What is the operating system?
Android

What is the version number of the operating system?
any

What operating system is your PC?
any

Which browser did you experience the problem in?
any

Can the bug be reproduced?
More than not happens every race but cars involved aren't always the same.

Additional comments:
This is more a reminder, I don't want this bug to be forgotten when the new update comes out and new variables come to play in the quali simulation.

I could be wrong here but I vaguely remember something about the driver can make mistakes during qualifying which would result is the difference in times.

Yep, you are wrong.

Drivers can make mistakes in practice, but Astro is talking about the qualifying bug which has been around for a couple of years. You will find a lot of historic threads discussing it (I have posted a couple below, but there are others with more evidence). This bug has ruined many a race where drivers, car development etc have been equal or there abouts.

https://igpmanager.com/forum-thread/42184

https://igpmanager.com/forum-thread/35722

The problem is you can’t manage qualifying but you can manage practice runs.
Don’t think it’ll in terms of where you qualify or finish in the race though unless it’s a wet qualifying.