Mattias Ekstrom takes pole for Valencia DTM race for Audi

Ekstrom had made it through to the one-lap Q4 shoot-out after setting the fastest lap time of the weekend in the previous section of qualifying, and used the advantage afforded by being the last driver to take to the track to take the 19th pole of his DTM career in a time of 1m30.608s.

Surprisingly DTM rookies Filipe Albuquerque and Renger van der Zande will start second and third after the Rosberg Audi and Persson Mercedes drivers took their career-best starting spots; Albuquerque 0.413s slower than Ekstrom in Q4.

David Coulthard completed the second row in another old Mercedes, the grand prix winner also taking the best grid spot of his career in his Mucke car.

The usual scrabble for the top eight spots in Q2 became redundant when Edoardo Mortara spun his Rosberg Audi into the gravel at the Manuel Herreros corner and brought out the red flags.

While the Italian consigned himself to 14th spot on the grid, the remaining 13 cars were allowed into a lengthened 13-minute Q3, all pushing for a top-four spot that would ensure progression into the one-lap shoot-out.

While Ekstrom, van der Zande, Coulthard and Albuquerque - the latter knocking Mike Rockenfelller out of the reckoning with just 26 seconds remaining - the remaining nine cars had their positions set at this stage.

These included Abt quartet Rockenfeller, Miguel Molina, Timo Scheider and Oliver Jarvis and HWA Mercedes pair Gary Paffett and Ralf Schumacher, who rounded out the top 10.

Tomczyk, who was a consistent top-six runner before the red flags, could do no better than 11th in his Phoenix Audi while Spengler - the year's best qualifier - climbed out of his HWA Mercedes with three minutes of Q3 still to go and will start 13th, behind his team-mate Jamie Green.

All three drivers, however, will move up a spot when Schumacher's three-place penalty, carried over from Oschersleben, is applied.

Pos  Driver                Team/Car          Time       Gap
 1.  Mattias Ekstrom       Abt Audi          1m30.608s
 2.  Filipe Albuquerque    Rosberg Audi      1m31.021s  + 0.413s
 3.  Renger van der Zande  Persson Mercedes  1m31.173s  + 0.565s
 4.  David Coulthard       Mucke Mercedes    1m31.338s  + 0.730s
 5.  Mike Rockenfeller     Abt Audi          1m30.202s  Q3
 6.  Miguel Molina         Abt Audi          1m30.212s  Q3
 7.  Timo Scheider         Abt Audi          1m30.234s  Q3
 8.  Oliver Jarvis         Abt Audi          1m30.240s  Q3
 9.  Gary Paffett          HWA Mercedes      1m30.297s  Q3
10.  Ralf Schumacher       HWA Mercedes      1m30.304s  Q3
11.  Martin Tomczyk        Phoenix Audi      1m30.554s  Q3
12.  Jamie Green           HWA Mercedes      1m30.602s  Q3
13.  Bruno Spengler        HWA Mercedes      1m30.621s  Q3
14.  Edoardo Mortara       Rosberg Audi                 Q2
15.  Maro Engel            Mucke Mercedes    1m30.583s  Q1
16.  Christian Vietoris    Persson Mercedes  1m30.587s  Q1
17.  Rahel Frey            Phoenix Audi      1m30.712s  Q1
18.  Susie Stoddart        Persson Mercedes  1m30.739s  Q1