Moscow DTM: BMW's Maxime Martin secures maiden pole

The Belgian driver comfortably progressed through Q1 with the fifth best time, before topping Q2 with a 1m28.523s, the fastest lap that has been set so far this weekend.

Martin then capped off a stand out session with a 1m28.619s lap a minute from the end of Q3 to secure his first career pole and BMW's third of the season so far.

Bruno Spengler made it a BMW 1-2 with second, despite the 2012 series champion barely scraping into Q3 with the seventh fastest time. He was one of only two drivers to better his Q2 time in Q3, resulting in a front row start.

Practice pacesetter Nico Muller finished third in his Abt Audi, narrowly edging out Phoenix Audi driver Mike Rockenfeller, who will start fourth.

Adrien Tambay, the only driver other than Spengler to improve between Q2 and Q3, qualified fifth, ahead of Augusto Farfus, Marco Wittmann and Miguel Molina.

Briton Jamie Green and former Formula 1 driver Timo Glock rounded out the top 10, while Mattias Ekstrom was just 11th, having been in the top three in both practice sessions.

Meanwhile, Mercedes' miserable start to the weekend continued in qualifying.

Norisring winner Robert Wickens was the best placed Mercedes in 14th, while Pascal Wehrlein, Gary Paffett, Christian Vietoris and Vitaly Petrov occupied the bottom four spots.

Daniel Juncadella and Paul di Resta did manage to join Wickens in Q2, but qualified 15th and 18th respectively.

BMW's Martin Tomczyk was the only non-Mercedes to be eliminated from Q1, but despite actually qualifying 19th, he will start 22nd thanks to a carryover penalty for tagging Paffett during the Norisring race.

Pos  Driver                  Team/Car        Time       Gap    
 1.  Maxime Martin           RMG BMW         1m28.619s         
 2.  Bruno Spengler          Schnitzer BMW   1m28.638s  +0.019s
 3.  Nico Muller             Rosberg Audi    1m28.714s  +0.095s
 4.  Mike Rockenfeller       Phoenix Audi    1m28.714s  +0.095s
 5.  Adrien Tambay           Abt Audi        1m28.754s  +0.135s
 6.  Augusto Farfus          RBM BMW         1m28.760s  +0.141s
 7.  Marco Wittmann          RMG BMW         1m28.844s  +0.225s
 8.  Miguel Molina           Abt Audi        1m28.925s  +0.306s
 9.  Jamie Green             Rosberg Audi    1m28.805s  Q2     
10.  Timo Glock              MTEK BMW        1m28.855s  Q2     
11.  Mattias Ekstrom         Abt Audi        1m28.932s  Q2     
12.  Edoardo Mortara         Abt Audi        1m28.980s  Q2     
13.  Antonio Felix da Costa  MTEK BMW        1m29.058s  Q2     
14.  Robert Wickens          HWA Mercedes    1m29.148s  Q2     
15.  Daniel Juncadella       Mucke Mercedes  1m29.231s  Q2     
16.  Joey Hand               RBM BMW         1m29.270s  Q2     
17.  Timo Scheider           Phoenix Audi    1m29.425s  Q2     
18.  Paul di Resta           HWA Mercedes    1m29.509s  Q2     
19.  Martin Tomczyk          Schnitzer BMW   1m29.749s  Q1     
20.  Pascal Wehrlein         HWA Mercedes    1m29.836s  Q1     
21.  Gary Paffett            HWA Mercedes    1m29.925s  Q1     
22.  Christian Vietoris      HWA Mercedes    1m30.031s  Q1     
23.  Vitaly Petrov           Mucke Mercedes  1m30.443s  Q1