I HAD THE SAME PROB AND THE ONLY USEFUL INFO I HAVE FOUND IS THIS. NOT TRIED YET UT GIVE IT A SHOT.
It's quite easy to consistently get to at least third once you know how. You just have to use slipstreaming - this involves you driving right behind the person in front of you. The air right behind the car in front of you has less air resistance than normal so if you can get into that 'pocket' of air, you will be able to accelerate better and be able to build up more speed.

So taking this into consideration, keep trying to slipstream the cars in front of you. Here's a big tip - since you don't get penalised in this race for touching the barriers, after the first corner you should be right behind the BMW Z4 I think. At this point, slipstream this bunch of cars and stick to the RIGHT hand side. When the second corner approaches just keep accelerating on the right hand side of the track and 'hug' the right hand barrier and you will lose very little speed. This will allow you to move up the field very quickly on the next short straight. I think if you do it correctly, you should be able to get past the Mazda RX8 by the time you get to the short straight.