Nico Hulkenberg secured his sixth pole position of the season during qualifying at Hockenheim on Friday, ahead of the tenth and final round of the 2008 Formula 3 Euroseries.

Hulkenberg, who secured the Euroseries crown earlier this month, posted his best lap, a 1 minute 33.218 seconds, with three minutes remaining.

"Qualifying was great. With the first set of tyres, I was second, but I absolutely wanted to set the fastest time. I have tried everything and it worked out," said the AT&T Williams F1 tester. "By being fastest in qualifying six times this year, I have shown that I am as good as anyone in qualifying."

Mucke Motorsport's Christian Vietoris and Signature-Plus ace Edoardo Mortara were next up, both within less than 0.1 seconds of P1. Initially Mortara outpaced Vietoris for second, but then the German countered successfully to re-take the spot alongside Hulkenberg on the front row of the grid.

"Halfway through the session, I was third and I was certain that I could match Jules Bianchi, who at that point was fastest," said Christian. "But with the second set of tyres, I almost despaired. I never found a clear lap. Eventually, I still made it into second place."

Mortara meanwhile wasn't too disappointed with third, as it will give him a good basis to defend his runners-up spot in the championship standings.

"My qualifying was nearly perfect. I had clear laps and I made it through all right. Maybe, I could have done even better, but I still made a slight error. However, I am happy with third place on the grid," he noted. "Being that far up front again after such a long time, is great."

Further down the order Renger van der Zande qualified fourth, 0.143 seconds off the pole, followed Jules Bianchi, who was the top rookie in fifth, with Stefano Coletti sixth, two tenths slower.

The leader in the rookie standings, Erik Janis ended up a lowly 16th and will now have to worry about his leading position in the rookie classification.

Koudai Tsukakoshi and Mika Maki were seventh and eighth, while Brits James Jakes and Sam Bird rounded out the top ten.