I think you misread my post a little Wellington. I did say I think this is a synchronization problem. You introduce another question now that even makes it more likely, in my opinion. Let me draw out example situations.

I'm sure all players of WipEout HD are aware of the ghosting of crafts and the laggy behaviour, sometimes your opponents online fly through walls, don't get hit by your weapons, etc.

Well I think this is affecting the way bombs work, rendering the weapon almost ineffective when dropped in a wide open space.

You are on the track, and have a bomb pickup. You drop it right in the middle of the track (Say, in front of a speed pad, like I usually do ). Well there are many things that can and have happened to others as well as me I'm sure from that instant.

First: your opponent flies into the bomb on his screen, it explodes. No problem, that's how it works.

Second: your opponent does a sideshift or another evasive manoeuvre, and dodges the bomb on his screen. It doesn't explode. Again, that's how it's meant to be.

The two above cases probably mean that lag, ping, latency, synchronization, did not have an effect on the game at that particular time.

However, many more things can happen.

Third: Your opponent flies straight into the bomb on his screen. It does not explode. What can be the cause? Synchronization I think. I think that at that precise time, while he flew right in the middle of the track on his screen, he didn't on your screen, thus he didn't hit the bomb you launch. Which didn't make it explode.

Fourth: Your opponent dodges the bomb. It explodes. Again, a synchronization problem, but of the reverse effect. On his screen, he didn't fly through the bomb, but on your screen, because of the sync issue, he did, thus making your bomb explode. BANG!

Imagine the rest of the situations, like the bomb appearing in a different 'fake' spot on his screen because of sync problems, so he flies in the middle which appears clear, thus hitting the 'real' spot, making the bomb explode again. Etc. Etc.