Scheider on pole as Audi dominate

The German snatched the top spot with 10 seconds remaining in qualifying, as Audi locked out the top five positions on the grid for the second race running.

Championship leader Mattias Ekstrom will start alongside Scheider, after he bumped Martin Tomczyk off of the front row with his final lap.

Tomczyk will be joined on row two by the 2006-specification Audi of Alexandre Premat, while Tom Kristensen will start fifth.

Bruno Spengler was the fastest Mercedes driver in sixth place as he was at Mugello, and he was the only 2007-specification Mercedes to make it through to the final segment of qualifying for the top eight drivers.

Of his HWA-Mercedes teammates, Mika Hakkinen was 13th, while reigning champion Bernd Schneider was 14th, and Jamie Green could only manage 18th on the grid.

Paul di Resta was the only other Mercedes to join Spengler in the final session, and the reigning F3 Euro Series champion will start Sunday's race from seventh, just ahead of Mike Rockenfeller.

The session was disrupted early on when Vanina Ickx rolled her car during the first segment of qualifying, bringing out the red flag with just two minutes of that session remaining.

The red flag meant that no drivers were eliminated from the first session, as DTM rules state that any remaining time is added to the next segment, and all drivers are allowed to progress into session two.

Gary Paffett was one of the main drivers to benefit from the red flag. The 2005 champion had been heading out of the first session when the red flag came out, and he managed to climb up to ninth place in the second session.

Scheider's only pole position prior to this weekend came at the same circuit in 2003 when he was driving for Opel, but he retired from that race when a wheel fell off shortly after he made a pitstop.

Pos  Driver             Team        Time               
 1.  Timo Scheider      Audi        1:32.823
 2.  Mattias Ekstrom    Audi        1:32.870  + 0.047
 3.  Martin Tomczyk     Audi        1:32.903  + 0.080
 4.  Alexandre Premat   Audi        1:33.036  + 0.213
 5.  Tom Kristensen     Audi        1:33.085  + 0.262
 6.  Bruno Spengler     Mercedes    1:33.162  + 0.339
 7.  Paul Di Resta      Mercedes    1:33.400  + 0.577
 8.  M.Rockenfeller     Audi        1:33.617  + 0.794
 9.  Gary Paffett       Mercedes    1:33.562  + 0.739
10.  Lucas Luhr         Audi        1:33.691  + 0.868
11.  Christian Abt      Audi        1:33.746  + 0.923
12.  M.Winkelhock       Audi        1:33.849  + 1.026
13.  Mika Hakkinen      Mercedes    1:33.905  + 1.082
14.  Bernd Schneider    Mercedes    1:34.026  + 1.203
15.  A.Margaritis       Mercedes    1:34.200  + 1.377
16.  Daniel La Rosa     Mercedes    1:34.240  + 1.417
17.  Mathias Lauda      Mercedes    1:34.409  + 1.586
18.  Jamie Green        Mercedes    1:34.548  + 1.725
19.  Susie Stoddart     Mercedes    1:34.670  + 1.847
20.  Vanina Ickx        Audi        1:35.723  + 2.900