Mattias Ekstom has secured pole for the opening round of the new DTM season after Audi dominated qualifying at Hockenheim.

The double champion successfully made his way though to the final stage of the new-look qualifying format and was quickest of the four drivers to make it to the final phase with a time of 1min 32.535secs putting him a tenth of a second clear of Tom Kristensen.

In a session where Audi dominated, Martin Tomczyk and Oliver Jarvis took third and fourth – the latter starring at the wheel of his 2008-spec car.

“Hockenheim is always a pleasure for me,” Ekstrom said. “However, as long as the race hasn't finished, there are no points either. We are all set and I am looking forward to Sunday.”

Timo Scheider will start fifth ahead of the first of the Mercedes drivers after Paul di Resta qualified sixth. Maro Engel's year old car was the only other Mercedes to make it into the top ten in seventh, with Markus Winkelhock, Alex Premat and Mike Rockenfeller all taking their year old machines into the top ten on the grid.

Gary Paffett and Ralf Schumacher start eleventh and twelfth for Mercedes ahead of female racers Katherine Legge and Susie Stoddart, while Mattias Lauda, Tomas Kostka, Christian Bakkerud, Johannes Seidlitz and Bruno Spengler all failed to make it past the first part of qualifying – the latter after running into problems on track.