Strange bug at Auto-Drive in Online Race Start

[AerodyManiac]

Today I joined the last slot of the Manufacturers Cup Exhibition Series' Race at Interlagos. I set the fastest lap at Qualifying, thereby starting on pole. What surprised me is at the race start, after Auto-Drive is engaged for a few seconds, the guy placed 2nd suddenly no longer applied throttle and instead applied partial braking for a brief moment, backing up all the 14 cars behind him and leaving me with a ~3 second lead after the countdown reaches zero. It's almost like the 2nd-placed car suddenly had a power drop, because the only time I have encountered this in online GT7 races is in one of those Daily Races where the only performance limit is a maximum PP, and that time I decided to show up in a stock '50s Fiat 500 just for fun, and I ended up blocking the 2 guys behind in Auto-Drive who hadn't set a lap time simply because my 500 can't accelerate quickly enough at the start. This time though, all cars are Gr.3, so that wouldn't be a possibility. The "Auto" word in Auto-Drive would also seem to suggest that the player can't do anything to influence the car's input, no matter how the player tried. So I was left wondering what happened, and if you guys have encountered something similar before. Here's a replay of the race start in question, with the camera focused on the player affected with the bug...



And before you ask it, no, I did not win the race, after my amateur driving skills caused me to bin it several times at the barriers, ending up at 14th place at race's end...

Full race can be found on GT7's in-game search with the tag #weirdrace, for those who are interested.

 

[ElectricNaz]

This bug happens randomly at different points on the grid. I did a race once where the top 5 (inc me) ended up about 20 seconds clear of the pack, and also been in the part of the pack that's been held up. Not sure why it happens but it's not the rarest bug in the world!

 

[TumeK5]

While I was doing the Watkins Glen race, this happened multiple times at the same point of the grid.

I will edit these clips together into a video later.

 

[AerodyManiac]

Not sure why it happens but it's not the rarest bug in the world!

Ah well, that’s comforting to know. My driving sucked big time to be unable to materialize a 3-second lead given by the racing gods into a victory, and I was contemplating somewhere into the race that I should have clarified to other folks in post-race chat that I was not cheating, but later didn’t do it for whatever reason. At least I can rest easy knowing it’s not that uncommon!