Yes that's fine, but it does not actually work that way. If I'm turning a 2:00 lap time, I should not be matched with folks turning 1:45 or 1:50, but that's the norm.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but after back and forth on forums and experimenting in GT sports mode, I believe Q time has nothing to do with matching.
Matching uses SR first - if there are enough people online, your race will be full of matching SR. Rarely will you get a different SR.
After that, your DR, and postion within that DR, gets used. If you are high DR D, you will get matched with other high DR D and low DR C. Again, if there aren't as many people online close to your rating, you will be matched further away from a perfect match. This can be accentuated by being an uncommon ranking, eg DR S SR E. Surely there aren't many people who can obtain a high DR rating and still have a poor SR. There may be lots of people online, but not many of your type.
nce your matching has taken place and race participants defined, you are sorted by your qualifying time. This explains why there can be a large variance in Q time - it isn't used to match. In tracks I have had lots of practise on, I Q near the start, but some tracks I am towards the back of the pack. I initially thought this was about odds. With enough people online in a 16 car race, this would give you a 1 in 16 chance of being pole. However, people not participating in races they don't like, and practising some tracks more than others swing these odds, as does having less than perfect DR and SR matches.
Can anyone correct me/ expand??
For me this was exemplified by my participation in 2 GR4 Dragon Trail daily races a few days ago, after practising the track for a week in a GR3 RSR. I had a league race there and would have practised 100 laps or more. After all that practise, racing in a slower car allowed me to be very precise, and a handful of Q laps gave me a good time. In my first race, I Q 3rd, won the race, and went from mid DR D SR S to DR C. In the second race, i Q 6, and won again. This put me over halfway through the DR C progress bar. Pity it was a late night, I was already off song, otherwise a few more races could have seen me rise another rank...though I would hate to game the rank, and race at the back of every other race where I didn't know the track so well.