BMW sweeps front row for Lausitz DTM race with Bruno Spengler and Augusto Farfus

Spengler had sewn the seeds of his pole in Q3, the Canadian having only completed two laps on his way to setting the third fastest time. Not only did this secure his progression to the single-lap Q4 shoot-out, it also meant his tyres were less worn than those of his rivals, who had all completed three laps already.

The Schnitzer driver's 1m18.777s lap knocked Gary Paffett's HWA Mercedes off the top spot, and was then unchallenged by both Mike Rockenfeller and Farfus.

Farfus came closest to beating Spengler ahead of what will be only his second DTM start on Sunday. The RBM driver was 0.038s slower than his stablemate. Championship leader Paffett will head the second row ahead of Rockenfeller's Phoenix Audi.

Edoardo Mortara failed to repeat his Hockenheim achievement of making Q4, but the Rosberg Audi did enough to secure fifth on the grid, ahead of HWA's Jamie Green, the RMG BMW of champion Martin Tomczyk and Mattias Ekstrom's Abt Audi.

Two more Audi drivers followed with Miguel Molina (Phoenix) ninth and Adrien Tambay (Abt) continuing his impressive rookie DTM campaign with 10th - his first top 10 qualifying result. He had earlier edged out Mortara's team-mate Filipe Albuquerque by just 0.006s to reach Q3.

The big surprise of Q2 was that two-time champion Timo Scheider was eliminated, the Abt driver failing to make the cut in 12th despite setting a time only 0.4s slower than pacesetter Farfus. His fate was sealed when first Paffett and then Spengler pumped in late fliers to ensure their own progression.

For the second year in a row, Ralf Schumacher followed up a promising race result at the previous event by failing to make it out of Q1 at Lausitz, the HWA man one of four Mercedes drivers among the six names eliminated from the opening part of qualifying.

Fellow grand prix winner David Coulthard was among them too, the Mucke driver twice locking up in the final complex of corners and ending up 20th on the grid.

Pos  Driver              Team/Car          Time       Gap
 1.  Bruno Spengler      Schnitzer BMW     1m18.777s
 2.  Augusto Farfus      RBM BMW           1m18.815s  + 0.038s
 3.  Gary Paffett        HWA Mercedes      1m18.820s  + 0.043s
 4.  Mike Rockenfeller   Phoenix Audi      1m19.206s  + 0.429s
 5.  Edoardo Mortara     Rosberg Audi      1m18.374s  Q3
 6.  Jamie Green         HWA Mercedes      1m18.461s  Q3
 7.  Martin Tomczyk      RMG BMW           1m18.490s  Q3
 8.  Mattias Ekstrom     Abt Audi          1m18.569s  Q3
 9.  Miguel Molina       Phoenix Audi      1m18.667s  Q3
10.  Adrien Tambay       Abt Audi          1m18.686s  Q3
11.  Filipe Albuquerque  Rosberg Audi      1m18.749s  Q2
12.  Timo Scheider       Abt Audi          1m18.758s  Q2
13.  Andy Priaulx        RBM BMW           1m18.771s  Q2
14.  Joey Hand           RMG BMW           1m18.817s  Q2
15.  Robert Wickens      Persson Mercedes  1m18.840s  Q2
16.  Christian Vietoris  HWA Mercedes      1m18.862s  Q2
17.  Ralf Schumacher     HWA Mercedes      1m19.506s  Q1
18.  Roberto Merhi       Persson Mercedes  1m19.557s  Q1
19.  Susie Wolff         Mucke Mercedes    1m19.584s  Q1
20.  David Coulthard     Mucke Mercedes    1m19.672s  Q1
21.  Dirk Werner         Schnitzer BMW     1m19.737s  Q1
22.  Rahel Frey          Abt Audi          1m20.415s  Q1