Scheider takes Norisring pole

Mattias Ekstrom will join his Abt Sportsline team-mate on the front row, as Audi bids to win on the German street track for the first time since Laurent Aiello's 2002 victory.

Qualifying was chaotic, with changing weather conditions and confusion over the rules all playing their part.

The track was wet for Q1, but by the end of Q2 it was drying quickly. That caught out several drivers, with Tom Kristensen and Paul di Resta being bumped out of the top eight in the dying seconds.

There was a sprinkle of rain at the start of Q3, but when that ceased the track dried again, meaning that completing a lap at the end was key.

Ralf Schumacher, Maro Engel and Jamie Green all stayed out and thought they had got themselves into Q4, but they exceeded the maximum number of laps, so missed out on the pole shootout.

After a long delay while the situation was cleared up, that left Scheider and Ekstrom battling the Mercedes of Bruno Spengler and Gary Paffett for pole, with the C-class drivers going first in the one lap showdown.

While Spengler's time was enough to prevent Paffett taking the top spot at the time, the Canadian was bumped down to third when the Audis came across the line.

Green, who had been one of the pacesetters throughout qualifying, was classified fifth in his one-year-old car, while another star of the session was Katherine Legge, who is set to start from eighth.

Despite missing out on Q4 in the confusion, Ralf Schumacher still scored his best ever DTM qualifying result with seventh.

However, the order of places fifth to eighth could still change, with the stewards currently looking into the matter.

Pos  Driver               Car       Time
 1.  Timo Scheider        Audi      49.012s
 2.  Mattias Ekstrom      Audi      49.123s
 3.  Bruno Spengler       Mercedes  49.159s
 4.  Gary Paffett         Mercedes  49.329s
 5.  Jamie Green          Mercedes  48.744s
 6.  Maro Engel           Mercedes  49.061s
 7.  Ralf Schumacher      Mercedes  49.085s
 8.  Katherine Legge      Audi      49.406s
 9.  Tom Kristensen       Audi      49.356s
10.  Paul di Resta        Mercedes  49.440s
11.  Susie Stoddart       Mercedes  49.511s
12.  Mike Rockenfeller    Audi      49.653s
13.  Martin Tomczyk       Audi      49.939s
14.  Alexandre Premat     Audi      49.944s
15.  Mathias Lauda        Mercedes  54.127s
16.  Tomas Kostka         Audi      54.178s
17.  Oliver Jarvis        Audi      54.199s
18.  Christian Bakkerud   Audi      54.365s
19.  Markus Winkelhock    Audi