"a few seconds late" is correct and usable in written English.
You can use it to refer to a slight delay in something happening, usually when the delay has had little to no impact on the situation overall. For example: "The train arrived a few seconds late, but I still managed to catch it."
Carter had made two tackles and brought down Luther Burrell a few seconds late before receiving his first pass.
She was heavy on discipline and punctuality, with detentions given for being even a few seconds late.
Still, the action is nonstop, except for a few seconds late every afternoon when everyone freezes and doffs their caps as the Dominican flag is lowered.
In the interest of full disclosure, I should mention that while I have not met any of those original team owners, I am familiar with a member of Mr. Okrent's current league: my editor, whose face appears for a few seconds late in the film.
A stickler for the rules, she kicks up a fuss after she sees students entering a classroom a few seconds late, and she harasses her best friend, Mrs. Reddell (Shannon Haragan), a former teacher newly promoted to assistant principal, to enforce the rules strictly.
When Facebook released their vanity URLs, Bergman -- the photographer -- was a few seconds late vs. David Bergman, a California real estate broker that was able to claim the Facebook URL Facebook.com/David.Bergman and also has the domain DavidBergman.com.
For some, though, the fortunate moment came a few seconds too late.
This time Mr. McCain caught himself, although he was a few seconds too late.
Christina arrived at the trailer a few seconds too late to see him disappear up the ramp.
The trick to doing this is that the reward must be immediate: cats have short attention spans, so if the reward comes even a few seconds too late, your cat may not understand what it's for.[18].[18]
At precisely that moment — not a few seconds early, nor late — the first cruise missile struck the vast, bunker-like presidential command complex in what would become, under the American occupation, the Green Zone.
