Wickens on pole again in the rain

Wickens was a commanding 0.583 seconds faster than Gravity-Charouz racer Brendon Hartley. Both drivers were part of a minority who improved their times after the session was restarted with three minutes remaining.

Walter Grubmuller had prompted the red flags after finding the tyre wall at the final corner. The Austrian exited his P1 Motorsport car unaided but an ambulance was sent to the scene when Grubmuller appeared to be in discomfort.

Jean-Eric Vergne was supreme in the early stages, but was demoted from top spot by his team-mate Wickens after 20 minutes of the half-hour session.

The Frenchman later demonstrated how much effort he was exerting in a bid to wrestle the position back when the rear of his car broke away on the entry to the Ford Kurve. Vergne survived the moment but took to the escape road at the Veedol chicane later on the lap.

Vergne ended the morning shading Epic Racing's Albert Costa by 0.009s to head the second row of the grid for this afternoon's race.

Monaco winner Daniel Ricciardo (ISR) was fifth, a tenth of a second up on KMP Racing's Nelson Panciatici, who suffered a puncture after contact with Fairuz Fauzy in race one.

Today's fourth row is set to be all-Fortec affair. Alexander Rossi spun early in the session at the Ford Kurve, but the American skilfully avoided the Nurburgring's tyre barriers to take seventh place, and team honours, ahead of Cesar Ramos.

Pos  Driver             Team             Time       Gap
 1.  Robert Wickens     Carlin           2m04.009s
 2.  Brendon Hartley    Gravity-Charouz  2m04.552s  + 0.543s
 3.  Jean-Eric Vergne   Carlin           2m04.848s  + 0.839s
 4.  Albert Costa       Epic             2m04.857s  + 0.848s
 5.  Daniel Ricciardo   ISR              2m05.087s  + 1.078s
 6.  Nelson Panciatici  KMP              2m05.187s  + 1.178s
 7.  Alexander Rossi    Fortec           2m05.462s  + 1.453s
 8.  Cesar Ramos        Fortec           2m05.621s  + 1.612s
 9.  Daniel Zampieri    BVM Target       2m05.785s  + 1.776s
10.  Nathanael Berthon  ISR              2m05.946s  + 1.937s
11.  Daniil Move        P1               2m06.225s  + 2.216s
12.  Jake Rosenzweig    Mofaz            2m06.492s  + 2.483s
13.  Kevin Korjus       Tech 1           2m06.517s  + 2.508s
14.  Fairuz Fauzy       Mofaz            2m06.526s  + 2.517s
15.  Daniel de Jong     Comtec           2m06.578s  + 2.569s
16.  Anton Nebylitskiy  KMP              2m06.697s  + 2.688s
17.  Stephane Richelmi  Draco            2m06.862s  + 2.853s
18.  Andre Negrao       Draco            2m06.866s  + 2.857s
19.  Walter Grubmuller  P1               2m06.955s  + 2.946s
20.  Arthur Pic         Tech 1           2m07.280s  + 3.271s
21.  Sergio Canamasas   BVM Target       2m07.330s  + 3.321s
22.  Sten Pentus        Epic             2m07.478s  + 3.469s
23.  Oliver Webb        Pons             2m07.924s  + 3.915s
24.  Jan Charouz        Gravity-Charouz  2m08.558s  + 4.549s
25.  Daniel McKenzie    Comtec           2m08.591s  + 4.582s
26.  Michael Herck      Pons             2m10.297s  + 6.288s