Hockenheim DTM: Maxime Martin on pole, Pascal Wehrlein only 13th

The Mercedes youngster spent the 20 minutes buried in the middle of the order and finished the session with a time of 1m32.892s, 0.255 seconds off Martin's benchmark.

Of the men who could snatch the title from Wehrlein, Mattias Ekstrom will start seventh, Edoardo Mortara ninth and Bruno Spengler 18th.

Having set the pace in the morning's practice session, Paul di Resta was fastest at the end of the first runs.

Martin elected to complete his second run on a relatively empty track, avoiding traffic at the death to vault to the top of the times with his 1m32.637s with five minutes remaining.

It was good enough to become the 13th different DTM polesitter in 17 races this season.

Timo Scheider recorded his best qualifying result of the year and will join Martin on the front row, just 0.074s off the Belgian's time.

Stablemate Miguel Molina was third, as Audi filled six of the top nine places with Jamie Green fifth ahead of Mike Rockenfeller and Ekstrom, with Mortara jumping up into the top 10 from 20th.

Unable to improve in the final minutes, di Resta dropped to fourth, as rookies Tom Blomqvist and Lucas Auer qualified eighth and 10th.

QUALIFYING TIMES:

Follow both legs of the DTM title decider as they happen with Autosport Race Centre Live from 12.30pm today and 2.15pm Sunday (UK time)