Reigning champion Mattias Ekstrom has scored his first DTM pole position of the season as Audi maintained their imperious run of form around the Zandvoort circuit.

Returning to the scene of their unprecedented 1-2-3-4 result of 2007, the Audi A4 was once again the car to have as the Ingolstadt marque annexed the top three positions on the grid and filled five of the top eight shootout positions.

However, while championship leader Scheider led the way in free practice, it was Ekstrom that came out fighting in qualifying, topping both qualifying segments before completing his dominance with a comfortable pole position in the shootout.

Taking the top spot by two tenths, Ekstrom was run close by Scheider, the pole winner from 2007, while Tom Kristensen completed Audi's day by popping up into third.

Mugello and Norisring winner Jamie Green, meanwhile, led the Mercedes offensive in fourth place, the Brit sneaking onto the second row in place of Bruno Spengler in fifth.

Last year's winner around the Dutch circuit, Martin Tomczyk, will start sixth, ahead of British duo Paul di Resta and Oliver Jarvis, the latter driver impressing once again with the only non-2008 specification machine to make it into the shootout.

Although things evened out a little between Audi and Mercedes in the shootout, it was still an Audi display elsewhere, with the A4 filling ninth, tenth and 11th for Markus Winkelhock, Mike Rockenfeller and Alexandre Premat respectively.

It meant Bernd Schneider was the only driver in a 2008-specification car to miss the cut in 12th, ahead of Gary Paffett and Christijan Albers, the latter doing a good job to get into Qualifying 2 in his two-year old Audi.

Elsewhere, Katherine Legge produced by far her best qualifying performance of the season by just missing the second qualifying segment in 16th, ahead of Susie Stoddart in 18th and Ralf Schumacher in 19th, the ex-F1 driver continuing to struggle with the DTM's qualifying format.