Scheider on pole at wet Hockenheim

Abt Audi's Scheider, who was mathematically ruled out of the title race when he suffered a puncture last time out at Oschersleben, put in a clean lap running first in Q4.

He then watched on as Gary Paffett and the two Phoenix Audis of Alexandre Premat and Mike Rockenfeller all failed to beat his time.

Rockenfeller, who ran last in Q4 after setting the pace in Q3, put in a lap good enough to get himself onto the front row for the first time in more than two years.

Paffett comfortably took third thanks to a messy lap from Premat, and the British driver has a good chance of making up ground in the title race as he will start ahead of his HWA-Mercedes team-mates Paul di Resta and Bruno Spengler.

Di Resta had to settle for fifth after Paffett bumped him out of Q3. The Scot was on course to then go fastest with his final lap, but his time fell away during the third sector.

It was not a bad day for di Resta though, as Spengler was the major casualty in a nail-biting Q2 session where conditions were improving. At one point in the final minute both of the main title contenders were in the drop zone, but di Resta scrambled through with his last lap of the session.

The fourth man who can still mathematically win the title, Audi's Mattias Ekstrom, did not even get out of Q1 and will start 15th.

The Swede's first lap of the session was poor, so he pitted for another set of wet tyres. He appeared to have done enough with his final lap to just make it into Q2, but he was bumped out by David Coulthard as the chequered flag fell.

Pos  Driver             Car       Q1         Q2         Q3         Q4
 1.  Timo Scheider      Audi      1m39.997s  1m38.686s  1m38.107s  1m37.399s
 2.  Mike Rockenfeller  Audi      1m39.490s  1m38.806s  1m38.005s  1m37.856s
 3.  Gary Paffett       Mercedes  1m39.675s  1m38.807s  1m38.084s  1m37.982s
 4.  Alexandre Premat   Audi      1m40.047s  1m39.084s  1m38.049s  1m40.202s
 5.  Paul di Resta      Mercedes  1m40.040s  1m39.115s  1m38.179s
 6.  Martin Tomczyk**   Audi      1m40.605s  1m39.212s  1m38.263s
 7.  Markus Winkelhock  Audi      1m40.373s  1m39.188s  1m38.484s
 8.  Miguel Molina      Audi      1m40.813s  1m38.728s  1m38.804s
 9.  Oliver Jarvis      Audi      1m40.924s  1m39.286s
10.  Jamie Green        Mercedes  1m40.628s  1m39.432s
11.  Bruno Spengler     Mercedes  1m40.850s  1m39.987s
12.  Maro Engel         Mercedes  1m40.981s  1m40.088s
13.  Ralf Schumacher    Mercedes  1m41.053s  1m40.567s
14.  David Coulthard    Mercedes  1m41.253s  1m40.780s
15.  Mattias Ekstrom    Audi      1m41.725s
16.  Katherine Legge    Audi      1m41.740s
17.  Susie Stoddart     Mercedes  1m42.330s
18.  Cong Fu Cheng      Mercedes  1m42.847s

** Will take five-place penalty