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Ekstrom on pole ahead of title rivals

Mattias Ekstrom has taken pole position for the DTM season finale at Hockenheim, with title contenders Paul di Resta and Timo Scheider lining up second and third

The reigning champion snatched pole from di Resta by four hundredths of a second, while Scheider finished the session two tenths adrift of the front row pair.

"It was very close between me and Mattias but he did a better lap," said di Resta. "I think we're in good shape for tomorrow, but Timo is only one place behind so anything can happen."

Ekstrom and di Resta did their best laps on their first set of tyres in Q3, but Scheider had to improve on his second run as he was briefly behind Jamie Green in the closing stages and did not want to start with a Mercedes between himself and di Resta.

Green took fourth in the end ahead of Bernd Schneider, while Bruno Spengler completed the top six, meaning that Scheider has di Resta's three HWA Mercedes teammates directly behind him on the grid, while di Resta himself has Ekstrom's Team Abt Audi ahead and Scheider's right behind.

Behind the top six, Martin Tomczyk and Tom Kristensen comple the top eigh and Mike Rockenfeller won the battle for top 2007 car to take ninth place in an extended second segment of qualifying.

All drivers were allowed through to Q2 after Q1 was red flagged when Markus Winkelhock crashed on the entry to the stadium section. The German was unable to get back out, so he will start last.

Pos Driver               Car          Time         Gap
 1. Mattias Ekstrom      Audi         1:32.244
 2. Paul di Resta        Mercedes     1:32.284  +0.040
 3. Timo Scheider        Audi         1:32.492  +0.248
 4. Jamie Green          Mercedes     1:32.615  +0.371
 5. Bernd Schneider      Mercedes     1:32.680  +0.436
 6. Bruno Spengler       Mercedes     1:32.769  +0.525
 7. Martin Tomczyk       Audi         1:32.930  +0.686
 8. Tom Kristensen       Audi         1:33.005  +0.761
 9. Mike Rockenfeller    Audi         1:33.578  +1.334
10. Oliver Jarvis        Audi         1:33.612  +1.368
11. Alexandre Premat     Audi         1:33.737  +1.493
12. Gary Paffett         Mercedes     1:33.742  +1.498
13. Christijan Albers    Audi         1:33.770  +1.526
14. Maro Engel           Mercedes     1:33.935  +1.691
15. Mathias Lauda        Mercedes     1:34.459  +2.215
16. Ralf Schumacher      Mercedes     1:34.499  +2.255
17. Susie Stoddart       Mercedes     1:34.665  +2.421
18. Katherine Legge      Audi         1:35.756  +3.512
19. Markus Winkelhock    Audi         no time

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