Bruno Spengler took his third DTM pole position of the year in a tense qualifying session at Oschersleben on Saturday.
The Schnitzer BMW driver had been fourth quickest in Q3, meaning that he was the first man out in the single-lap Q4 shootout. After setting a time of 1m20.916s, he watched as one by one Jamie Green, Gary Paffett and Dirk Werner all failed to beat his mark.
HWA Mercedes driver Paffett, who leads the championship by 16 points from Green and by 18 from Spengler, did enough to take second on the grid, 0.086sec slower than his Canadian rival.
Green and Werner, the latter in the second Schnitzer M3, filled the second row. Mattias Ekstrom was Audi's best representative in fifth in his Abt A5, while reigning champion Martin Tomczyk was sixth. The RMG BMW driver will start 11th, however, thanks to a five-place grid penalty he is carrying over from Zandvoort.
Zandvoort winner Edoardo Mortara was next up in his Rosberg Audi with the A5s of Phoenix teammates Mike Rockenfeller and Miguel Molina next up and Augusto Farfus right behind in his RBM BMW.
Ralf Schumacher was unfortunate to miss out on Q3, the HWA driver setting exactly the same time in Q2 as Rockenfeller, but staying behind as he had set the time later in the session. The German, who survived a spin at Turn 6 near the end of Q1, will start 10th however, thanks to Tomczyk's grid penalty.
Twelfth will be Britain's Andy Priaulx, who took a trip onto the grass at Turn 3 on his first flying lap of Q1.
Spengler and Green provided the highlights of Q1 as the pair, who lay in the drop zone in 18th and 19th as the chequered flag came out - secured the top two spots on the times with their final laps.
Roberto Merhi's Q1 started late when he stopped at the end of the pitlane at the start of the session to allow his Persson Mercedes mechanics to investigate a loose floor on his C-coupe. He later went off at Turn 6 and will start 19th.
Pos Driver Team/Car Time Gap
1. Bruno Spengler Schnitzer BMW 1m20.916s
2. Gary Paffett HWA Mercedes 1m21.002s + 0.086s
3. Jamie Green HWA Mercedes 1m21.226s + 0.310s
4. Dirk Werner Schnitzer BMW 1m21.911s + 0.995s
5. Mattias Ekstrom Abt Audi 1m20.927s Q3
6. Martin Tomczyk* RMG BMW 1m20.999s Q3
7. Edoardo Mortara Rosberg Audi 1m21.048s Q3
8. Mike Rockenfeller Phoenix Audi 1m21.059s Q3
9. Miguel Molina Phoenix Audi 1m21.155s Q3
10. Augusto Farfus RBM BMW 1m21.949s Q3
11. Ralf Schumacher HWA Mercedes 1m21.157s Q2
12. Andy Priaulx RBM BMW 1m21.173s Q2
13. Robert Wickens Mucke Mercedes 1m21.176s Q2
14. Filipe Albuquerque Rosberg Audi 1m21.280s Q2
15. Timo Scheider Abt Audi 1m21.286s Q2
16. Christian Vietoris HWA Mercedes 1m21.583s Q2
17. Adrien Tambay Abt Audi 1m21.654s Q1
18. Rahel Frey Abt Audi 1m21.875s Q1
19. Roberto Merhi Persson Mercedes 1m22.026s Q1
20. Joey Hand RMG BMW 1m22.035s Q1
21. David Coulthard Mucke Mercedes 1m22.169s Q1
22. Susie Wolff Persson Mercedes 1m22.422s Q1
* Five place grid penalty