Qual: Ekstrom pips Paffett

Despite being only 10th fastest in pre-qualifying, and therefore only just squeezing into the single-lap Super Pole, Paffett produced a sublime 1m34.168s as the first man on track. Car after car failed to beat his time, with team-mate Bernd Schneider coming closest until Ekstrom - the last man out - grabbed pole by 0.117secs.

"The track conditions were completely different in Super Pole, and I could feel the time fading away as the lap progressed," said Ekstrom. "For sure I'm very happy to be on pole, but I was worried that I wouldn't be able to make it."

Paffett said: "I'm amazed, to be honest. The lap was as close to perfect as you can get, but I was lucky to be in the Super Pole after I made a mistake in pre-qualifying."

Schneider admitted to a lock-up at Tarzan which cost him time, but he rated his Super Pole lap as his "second best of the season".

The Audis of Martin Tomczyk, Christian Abt and Tom Kristensen are next up, ahead of Merc's Christijan Albers, who made an expensive mistake at the Hugenholtz hairpin. Manuel Reuter leads a trio of Opels in eighth, comprising Timo Scheider and Marcel Fassler.

Jean Alesi of Mercedes missed out on getting into Super Pole and will start 13th, one place behind former F1 sparring partner Heinz-Harald Frentzen. Jeroen Bleekemolen was an impressive 15th after Euroteam rebuilt his Opel Vectra with just minutes of the session remaining. Laurent Aiello also got a lap in his rebuilt Vectra following his similar crash this morning. He will start 20.

Britain's Peter Dumbreck almost emulated his colleagues crashes in pre-qualifying, but just missed the Scheivlak tyrewall. He will start a lowly 16th.

Mattias Ekstrom, Audi A4, 1m34.051s
Gary Paffett, Mercedes C-Class, 1m34.168s
Bernd Schneider, Mercedes C-Class, 1m34.537s
Martin Tomczyk, Audi A4, 1m34.710s
Christian Abt, Audi A4, 1m34.813s
Tom Kristensen, Audi A4, 1m34.908s