Paffett not expecting controversy

Grid position is vital for Sunday's race as overtaking will be difficult around the tight circuit, but Paffett is optimistic that there won't be too many cases of drivers blocking their rivals.

DTM qualifying is broken into three knockout segments in the same way as Formula One, but each individual session is shorter, meaning that the drivers have little time to waste between their runs.

"Hopefully we won't see any games going on," Paffett told autosport.com. "It's good in a way that people won't have the time to mess about.

"The sessions are so short that everyone should be doing the same thing at the same time. We won't have some guys cruising round to the pits while others are on hot laps."

However, Paffett admitted that the short sessions could cause different problems, because the majority of the cars will be trying to find space at the same time in the session.

"Everybody will be out there trying to do the same thing," he said. "It could be hard to get a gap, and it could lead to people getting in each other's way.

"But on the other hand, with the field being so close this year, it means that if a car is five seconds ahead of you at the start of your lap, you won't close up much during your qualifying lap anyway."

Paffett was disappointed with his qualifying position of 14th in Hockenheim two weeks ago, and he is confident that he will be capable of reaching his target of making the final segment of qualifying this weekend.

"We've worked on getting the most out of the tyres for qualifying since Hockenheim, so we should be stronger here." he said.

"The field is so close, that if you can find one of two tenths of a second you can jump six or seven places."