Nihamavasa,
It is definitely NOT because of using a DS3 instead of a wheel or due to using an auto transmission instead of manual. Those things can make the difference of a few tenths of a second, but not 5-7 seconds, nor anywhere close to that.
I know this for a fact, because, I personally always use a DS3 and use automatic transmission, never manual, so, I always click open the Details Popup menus of all the drivers in the Top 250 of the world rankings, to check and see how far off from the #1 spot and the #1 time the fastest DS3 user is, and the fastest DS3-automatic-transmission user is, so that I can see how fast I'd have to go to be the fastest DS3 user with an auto transmission, etc. Usually there are multiple people in the top 50 or top 100 or so, using a DS3, and even a DS3 on automatic transmission.
That q-DOCK-q guy and Ed_Night are usually the highest ranked DS3 users, sometimes finishing in the top 10 (and back in the day, DoodleMonopoly sometimes went Top 3, or would be in the #1 spot in the world with his DS3 controller, etc), and as for people who use BOTH a DS3 AND an Automatic transmission, I think usually that "Kerze" guy (he has some other version of his name as well, but both names have "Kerze" in them, usually tends to be the highest ranked DS3 + Automatic Transmission guy, usually around the Top 50 or so. And, I think if Ed_Night or q-Dock-q were to use automatic transmissions with their DS3's, they'd probably go even faster than that, and pretty close to where they end up on their DS3 with manual trans, but maybe just a couple tenths slower (so, still top 15 or top 20 or something usually probably, in the entire world, out of 100,000+ entrants).
So, basically, don't spend time worrying about whether that is what it is, since it definitely isn't.
What it's really about is:
1. By far and away the most important: you have to drive extremely well. I mean, you gotta remember, there's literally more than 100,000 people trying the same event as you, who are also trying to put up a fast lap time, themselves. Picture a football stadium full of more than 100,000 people, each of them with a controller, sitting around putting up fastest lap times, you know? You can see how trying to be in the top 50 or top 10 out of that many people would be extremely difficult.
Making even one MINOR mistake, on a single turn, out of the entire lap, is usually gonna be enough to mean your time won't be in the top 50 even if the entire rest of your lap was perfect. And making one serious mistake (like a full overslide through a corner to where your engine bogs down to where you are accelerating back from bogging down to nearly a standstill or something like that) is going to mean you will be nowhere near the top 1,000, just from that ONE mistake on that one turn, alone. Let alone if you have multiple mistakes throughout the lap, in which case you might not make top 10,000!
The good news is, you get to try as many times as you want! You don't just get one try!
So, what ends up happening is, if you give it enough tries, eventually you'll have the entire course MEMORIZED. (Literally). As in, you'll see in your head the exact shape, and sharpness of every single turn on the course BEFORE you reach said turns. Like, before you even begin a lap, you'll be able to just sit and close your eyes and see yourself driving your way through the entire lap, turn after turn, knowing each one by heart.
Once you get to that point, where you know all the curves before you reach them, that makes a HUGE difference, and that's where you'll start having a chance of producing a Top 1,000 time, rather than just struggling to even get a Gold time. Going from top 1,000 to top 100 takes even more than that though. You'd have to not just have every curve memorized, but also start getting closer and closer to taking all the curves at exactly the optimal speed, like down to the mile per hour, entering them at exactly the right angle and speed to take them as fast as possible to where your car is using every inch of the track, so that when you accelerate out of the curve, you come close but not quite flying off the track, like, your inner tire just barely scrapes the inner apex of the curve and outer tire just barely rides up on the outer curb as you exit the track, ON ITS OWN, like when you have the stick pushed all the way to the side and accelerator pushed all the way down on the exit, you've taken it at just the right speed and outside-inside-outside that that is just what the car ends up doing, going through the curve as fast as physically possible (if you do it perfectly). Unless of course that curve is setting up into another curve, in which case you wouldn't want to go fully outside inside outside, but rather, outside, past-inside, less-than-outside leading into the next opposing curve, but that's common sense, and you'll get the hang of that from doing lots of laps, and watching the replays of the Top 10 guys and how they do their laps.
2. Usually all the people in the entire top 30 or top 50 or so (not always, but usually) are gonna be using the same exact model of car. So, to begin with, unless you are trying to goof around and have some fun the way guys like Ed_Night often do on their alternate accounts by trying to get a high finish in a 2nd, different car model, just as a self-challenge type of thing, you're gonna want to start off by getting that EXACT model of car, and looking on here for some setups that people have tried out and made posts about like "Wow, this setup is really good/fast", or better, yet, a setup that a top ranked guy, in the top 10 or top 20 in the world, has posted on here, etc. But if the setup doesn't vibe well with your style, like it seems to spin out way too easily, you can always try out some other setups (for the same car) until you find one that feels more stable to you. These will usually be slightly slower setups once you are at that highest level where you are trying to squeeze ever last hundredth out of a lap time, but, when you are multiple seconds off the fastest times, it's more important to find something that is still pretty fast, but a lot more "stable", rather than something that is theoretically even a little faster (when used expertly), but a lot less stable, and a lot harder to control, for a beginner. As you get better and better at driving, THEN you can try working your way up to those maxxed out setups that are more twitchy/spin-happy to try to eek out those last few tenths.
3. If you are using Active Steering Strong, don't set your traction control all the way to like "10". I'd leave it more in the middle, like set at 5. If you set it all the way to 10, your car is gonna start behaving really weird where it literally won't even obey your commands at all when you try to accelerate out of a curve. You'll be pressing the accelerator, but the car literally won't even accelerate at all until you are all the way done turning the wheels through the curve, since it won't allow any amount of loss of rear wheel traction at all whatsoever (which is a bad thing). So, try lowering the Traction control down to 5 and Active Steering on Strong or Mild, and you can even try lowering the traction control 1 notch at a time down to 4 or 3 if you find you are able to make it through curves without spinning out. Just use trial and error and see what the lowest setting is that you can use and still not be constantly spinning out off the track on every corner. (Although, you should also be trying to get better at that, as well. Like, keep in mind that there are guys who don't use any Active Steering at all AND don't use any traction control at all, even though they are using a DS3, and they still manage to get around the track super fast without any blatant errors, and finish in the top 20 or whatever, so, it is possible, it just takes a lot of throttle control and a very delicate touch on the joystick as you are going through a curve. But, if that seems too difficult to where it takes all the fun out of doing runs because 99% of the runs end up spinning out on the first curve, obviously adjust accordingly and use some traction control and Active Steering if you want to, just use what seems most optimal at the time, and then try to slowly lower it down from there as you get better over time).
good luck
I had few opportunities for improvement on friday but kept loosing few tenths in those last two corners on every good lap...
hehehe, I've also figured that perhaps it's one of the reasons I like this game so much, it really requires me to overcome MYSELF if 'i want to make best possible lap times 
hehehe, definitely going to but few more hours on this one so see you guys next week, hopefully I have some lap times to post 
