BMW claimed its first DTM pole position since 1992 as Bruno Spengler and Augusto Farfus swept the front row at Lausitz.
Spengler had sewn the seeds of his pole in Q3, the Canadian having only completed two laps on his way to setting the third fastest time. Not only did this secure his progression to the single-lap Q4 shootout, it also meant his tires were less worn than those of his rivals, who had all completed three laps already.
The Schnitzer driver's 1m18.777s lap knocked Gary Paffett's HWA Mercedes off the top spot, and was then unchallenged by both Mike Rockenfeller and Farfus.
Farfus came closest to beating Spengler ahead of what will be only his second DTM start on Sunday. The RBM driver was 0.038sec slower than his stablemate. Championship leader Paffett will head the second row ahead of Rockenfeller's Phoenix Audi.
Edoardo Mortara failed to repeat his Hockenheim achievement of making Q4, but the Rosberg Audi did enough to secure fifth on the grid, ahead of HWA's Jamie Green, the RMG BMW of champion Martin Tomczyk and Mattias Ekstrom's Abt Audi.
Two more Audi drivers followed with Miguel Molina (Phoenix) ninth and Adrien Tambay (Abt) continuing his impressive rookie DTM campaign with 10th – his first top 10 qualifying result. He had earlier edged out Mortara's teammate Filipe Albuquerque by just 0.006sec to reach Q3.
The big surprise of Q2 was that two-time champion Timo Scheider was eliminated, the Abt driver failing to make the cut in 12th despite setting a time only 0.4sec slower than pacesetter Farfus. His fate was sealed when first Paffett and then Spengler pumped in late fliers to ensure their own progression.
For the second year in a row, Ralf Schumacher followed up a promising race result at the previous event by failing to make it out of Q1 at Lausitz, the HWA man one of four Mercedes drivers among the six names eliminated from the opening part of qualifying.
Fellow grand prix winner David Coulthard was among them, too, the Mucke driver twice locking up in the final complex of corners and ending up 20th on the grid.