Seven laps on a decent size track is not all that extreme. I just ran at a micro trophy race on the weekend and my TQ was five laps ahead of 3rd qualifier. In the main (10 minutes) the top two cars were easily seven laps ahead of the 3rd and 4th place car.

There are many contributing factors to this but putting speed and chassis preparation aside the other big, big, big, huge factor is consistency. I was able to run 74 laps in my race and all my laps were between 7.7 and 8.5 with one lap at 9.5 seconds. That one lap is what cost me the win as I finished three seconds behind the winner. This could easily be seen in the average lap times. The top two drivers were 8.1 and the 3rd place driver was 8.9 or something similar. How many times do you think the 3rd place car crashed? two, three, maybe four times. Those all rob you time and laps.

Drive clean and make sure the drivetrain in your car is smooth, bearings are well oiled, motor is broken in, gearing and roll out is comparable to the faster cars and your car is setup for maximum corner speed. This will help you keep up the momentum in the corners so you barely need to lift off the throttle and can keep the car rolling. Any time the car has to slow down considerably and stall in the corners you are loosing time.