The 25-year-old German game developer had already achieved two podium finishes in World eX earlier this season and showed a blistering pace around the fast virtual city street circuit of Maastricht. The WRT driver won the Quarter Final of the ESPORTS racers and also the Semi Final, benefitting from a huge Turn 1 pileup behind him, triggered by Patrick Long Esports’ Henry Drury.
Five-time eX Prix winner Lasse Sørensen was also involved in the first-corner incident but miraculously able to continue and make another appearance in a World eX Final. The Dane had made a rare mistake in Qualifying when he inadvertently hit the escape key on his computer leaving him without a valid time.
Tom Kristensen’s lead PRO driver once again showed his unique class using the slipstreams on the long straights of Maastricht to his perfection and winning the Quarter Final of the real-world PRO drivers from the back of the grid.
In the Final, Braune and Sørensen kept overtaking each other throughout both laps. They made contact a couple of times, but their battle stayed clean and fair and Devin Braune was finally able to keep “Danish Dynamite” at bay, winning his first ever eX Prix.
“It’s fantastic,“ said Braune, whose car nicknamed “Walter” is now qualified for the Super Final on December 13 and third in the World eX Championship standings. “I didn’t even expect to get into the final because I had issues with the brake which was my own mistake. It was good fun.”
TK9 E-SPeeD is back in the lead of World eX Championship with “Danish Dynamite” following Lasse Sørensen‘s fourth podium in as many races. “It was a good race. It’s always geat to race on this Maastricht track. There are so many overtaking possibilities. I did a couple of mistakes. I think I should have passed him earlier. I’m still super happy having made the final again. It was an awesome battle with Devin.”
Macedonian Timotej Andonovski finished third for ACER VERO R8G on his debut in World eX which means Romain Grosjean’s “VERO 88” ESPORTS entry is just four points behind “Danish Dynamite” in the standings after four of nine rounds.
Rafael Lobato continued his strong series of results finishing fourth for China’s Absolute Racing as the second best PRO racing driver.
38-year-old Fredy Eugster was able to finally score the first points of the season for Nico Müller’s NIANCO team on his debut in the series in P5.
Jack Keithley was 6th for Williams Esports being one of the drivers involved in the Turn 1 carnage. The Briton was fastest in Free Practice and missed pole position by just 0.005 seconds.
Nicolas Hillebrand finished 7th in the sole car from Biela Racing Team EURONICS.
The Nextview Maastricht eX Prix was presented by BS+COMPETITION promoting Forest Preservation Kenyia. The „home event“ started well for the zebras with Alen Terzic starting from pole position while local hero Beitske Visser and wildcard entry Elias Seppänen also showed a strong pace in Qualifying.
But the event turned into a nightmare for the zebras. Beitske Visser crashed out on lap 1 of her Quarter Final, while both Alen Terzic and Elias Seppänen where casualties of the Turn 1 pileup. The run of bad luck thus continued for Terzic who published a video shortly after the event calling it “let’s go bowling”. The Slovenian showed great spirit by continuing the Semi Final without a rear wing.
With Seppänen, Drury and Terzic finishing 8th, 9th and 10th, all nine teams made it into the Top 10 – a first in the history of the series.
Jimmy Broadbent was a popular addition to the Maastricht eX Prix in BS+COMPETITION’s second art car. He kept his morale despite crashing out of qualifying and enjoyed a great battle with WRT‘s Chris Overend in Semi Final 1. “It’s a very tough track and it was my first time driving the car proper in anger. It’s got so much power and downforce to play with between the walls here. I guess I picked the worst one to come to. This is definitely not a beginners’ circuit. But it’s a lot of fun.”
Next on the agenda is the World eX Summit at BILSTER BERG on August 13 in Germany which will see the return of World eX Slot Racing and the #RCCO24 24-hour race of the “big small” electric racing series RCCO.
Round 5 of the World eX Championship is scheduled for August 30 presented by China’s Absolute Racing.
World eX
