Ekstrom flies to Nurburgring pole

The Swede was the only Audi driver to make it into Q4, as the next best A4 driver was Miguel Molina in seventh.

Ekstrom ran last in the top four shootout for pole, and blitzed the time set by championship leader Bruno Spengler to take top spot by nearly four tenths of a second.

Spengler will join him on the front row, while Jamie Green shone again in his 2008-spec Mercedes and will start third.

Paul di Resta took fourth, just ahead of Gary Paffett. The 2005 champion had been set to progress to Q4, but he was knocked back to fifth by Spengler in the final seconds of Q3.

Ralf Schumacher continued his improved form from the Norisring to take sixth, while Molina and reigning champion Timo Scheider make it an all-Audi fourth row.

Audi had expected more of its cars to be competitive this weekend, but there were worrying signs as early as Q1, when Scheider and Oliver Jarvis both had to put in late laps to get them into Q2.

Jarvis will line up ninth behind his Abt Audi team-mate, while David Coulthard completes the top 10.

Behind them, last year's winner Martin Tomczyk highlighted Audi's woes by only managing 11th on the grid.