Bruno Spengler charged to his third
DTM pole of the year, firmly keeping the pressure on championship leader Gary Paffett, who shares the front row with the Canadian at Oschersleben.
Spengler, who was the first car to run during the one-lap shootout, executed a clinical 1m20.916s lap around the Motorsport Arena to claim top spot ahead of tomorrow's race.
Paffett, who produced a lap just over two tenths off the pace, ensures he's in prime position to collect points on his way to what could be his second title with three rounds to go.
Britain's Jamie Green completed the top three for Mercedes, cementing his intent on taking the fight to title rivals Paffett and Spengler.
Dirk Werner had looked set to claim his maiden pole position for BMW after setting the fastest time of the weekend during Q3, but a scruffy final sector saw the German loose almost a second to his nearest rivals. As a result Werner starts tomorrow's race from fourth.
Mattias Ekstrom was the highest qualifying Audi in fifth ahead of defending champion Martin Tomczyk who set the sixth quickest time.
However, the RMG driver has to serve a five-grid place penalty following his collision with the Mercedes of Paffett last time out in Zandvoort.
Zandvoort winner Edoardo Mortara couldn't quite repeat that scintillating pace he shown last time out, setting the seventh fastest time ahead of Audi team-mate Mike Rockenfeller who follows just behind.
Miguel Molina and Augusto Farfus completed the top ten as the ninth and tenth fastest qualifiers.
Q2 once again lived up to its ruthless nature with the Mercedes of Ralf Schumacher cruelly missing out on a spot in Q3 despite matching the cut off time which was set by the Audi of Rockenfeller.
However, the German will start from tenth as a result of Tomczyk's penalty.
After claiming his first pole position in nearly two years last time out in Zandvoort it was business as usual for the Audi of Timo Scheider who continued his qualifying woes in 15th position.
Q1 claimed its usual suspects with Adrien Tambay and Rahel Frey just missing out on a place in Q2 thanks to a frantic end to the session which saw the times tumble. David Coulthard once again qualifies on the final row of the grid while Susie Wolff follows just behind and rounds off the runners in 22nd and last.