Augusto Farfus followed up his first win of the year last time out at Valencia by claiming his third pole position of the season for tomorrow's first race at Brno.
The Brazilian pipped fellow BMW driver Andy Priaulx to the top spot by just 0.040s in the final qualifying showdown, as the pair enjoyed an advantage of a couple of tenths over their nearest rival.
"Me and Andy are quite close, we have a similar package so it's always very special to achieve a good lap with no mistakes," said Farfus.
"BMW has done a good job to put three cars in the first three places and hopefully we can have a dry race to do another good job tomorrow."
That was Alex Zanardi, who made it a BMW 1-2-3 and was himself half a second quicker than anyone else. Nicola Larini was the top non-BMW, taking fourth on the grid in his Chevrolet Cruze, while Rickard Rydell was the best of the SEATs in fifth.
Gabriele Tarquini was the only other SEAT to make it through to the 10-car Q2 shootout and will start sixth. Jorg Muller, Alain Menu, Sergio Hernandez and Felix Porteiro completed the top 10.
The remaining three works SEATs missed Q2 and will line up from 11th to 13th, with Tiago Monteiro ahead of Jordi Gene and Yvan Muller, with Rob Huff 14th in the third Chevrolet.
Stefano D'Aste is Porteiro's nearest independent class rival in 15th, and will share the eighth row of the grid with Tom Coronel's SEAT Leon.
Pos Driver Car Q1 Q2
1. Augusto Farfus BMW 2m09.644s 2m09.590s
2. Andy Priaulx BMW 2m10.424s 2m09.630s
3. Alex Zanardi BMW 2m10.601s 2m09.862s
4. Nicola Larini Chevrolet 2m10.604s 2m10.327s
5. Rickard Rydell SEAT 2m10.628s 2m10.371s
6. Gabriele Tarquini SEAT 2m10.663s 2m10.617s
7. Jorg Muller BMW 2m10.730s 2m10.661s
8. Alain Menu Chevrolet 2m10.822s 2m10.714s
9. Sergio Hernandez BMW 2m10.826s 2m10.996s
10. Felix Porteiro BMW 2m10.981s 2m11.011s
11. Tiago Monteiro SEAT 2m11.020s
12. Jordi Gene SEAT 2m11.317s
13. Yvan Muller SEAT 2m11.320s
14. Robert Huff Chevrolet 2m11.391s
15. Stefano D'Aste BMW 2m11.504s
16. Tom Coronel SEAT 2m11.851s
17. Franz Engstler BMW 2m11.895s
18. Vito Postiglione BMW 2m12.141s
19. Marin Colak SEAT 2m12.469s
20. Tim Coronel SEAT 2m12.490s
21. Tom Boardman SEAT 2m13.048s
22. Jaap van Lagen Lada 2m13.371s
23. Kristian Poulsen BMW 2m13.808s
24. Kirill Ladygin Lada 2m14.033s
25. Viktor Shapovalov Lada 2m14.257s