Rookie driver Alexander Sims has secured his maiden pole position in the F3 Euroseries after heading qualifying for the latest round of the season at the Norisring.

The Mucke Motorsport driver, winner of the 2008 McLaren Autosport BRDC Young Driver of the Year, made the most of drying conditions to post a fastest lap of 55.367secs and outpace championship leader Jules Bianchi by three tenths of a second.

Bianchi was just ahead of ART team-mates Adrien Tambay and Esteban Gutierrez on the times as the French squad secured three of the top four places on the grid, while Prema Powerteam stablemates Stefano Coletti and Matteo Chinosi qualified fifth and sixth.

Henkie Waldschmidt, Atte Mustonen, Jean Karl Vernay and Marco Wittmann round out the top ten, with Wittmann joining Sims and Tambay as rookies who impressed during the session.

Mika Maki and Roberto Mehri start eleventh and twelfth, with Nick Tandy an impressive 13th ahead of his debut for the Kolles & Heinz Union team after the Briton was called in to replace the departed Carlo van Dam in the first year team's line-up.

Having paced practice, setting the same time as Maki, Sam Bird could only manage the 16th quickest time.