Giedo van der Garde maintained his relentless run of form to take feature race pole position for the latest round of the World Series by Renault at the Nurburgring.

The Dutchman has been a class act in the championship this year, with the four points he earns for pole position seeing him eke out his substantial championship lead to 45 points six races remaining.

Although his weekend in Germany hasn't gone entirely to plan following an engine change during practice, he put that behind him to snatch pole position away from Salvador Duran by just seven hundredths of a second.

A significant fillip for Duran, who is amongst the drivers chasing what will probably be runners-up spot behind van der Garde, the Mexican driver has been inconsistent again this season but looks set for one of his better weekends after securing second on the grid.

Prema Powerteam pairing Alvaro Barba and Miguel Molina make up the second row, the latter driver finally finding some pace from a car he has struggled to adapt to all season. Marco Bonanomi and Julien Jousse fill the third row, ahead of Hungary winner Fabio Carbone and Fairuz Fauzy.

Significantly for Fauzy and his Fortec Motorsport team though, he will start the first race of the weekend from pole position, by virtue of the fact the top eight in Superpole are reversed for the less lucrative opening race. Ultimate Signature's Carbone will start alongside to put him in a good position for a second straight win.

Their joy, however, meant disappointment for Mikhail Aleshin, Marco Barba, Aleix Alcaraz and Charles Pic, each of which made Superpole but will have to start ninth, tenth, 11th and 12th for both races.

Elsewhere, some surprise names missed the cut for Superpole, including qualifying-specialist Robert Wickens in 13th and Esteban Guerrieri in 14th, while third place in the championship Bertrand Baguette will start well down in 20th.

As for the Brits, James Walker is 18th, a disappointment given his form in free practice, while Pippa Mann will start 25th and last after her P1 Motorsport car ground to a halt with a mechanical problem.

Newcomers Paolo Nocera and Siso Cunill at RC Motorsport and KTR respectively qualified 24th and 23th.