Spengler on pole again in Holland

The HWA Mercedes driver had not been quickest in any of the first three parts of qualifying, but dug deep when he needed to in Q4 and produced a 1m31.805s that would not be beaten.

At the time of Spengler going top, his team-mate Jamie Green was the only man still to complete his single Q4 lap, but the Briton, who had been in the top two in every part of qualifying, did not quite have the speed to challenge and wound up 0.135s adrift of Spengler's time.

Mike Rockenfeller was the best of the Abt Audi drivers in third, just ahead of Martin Tomczyk in his older-spec Phoenix A4.

Gary Paffett and Timo Scheider were next up for HWA and Abt to make it three Mercedes and three Audis in the top six, while series rookie Edoardo Mortara scored a career-best seventh spot in his Rosberg Audi.

Ralf Schumacher (HWA), Miguel Molina (Abt) and Filipe Albuquerque (Rosberg) rounded out the top 10, the latter securing the best grid spot of his short DTM career.

Maro Engel ruined his hopes in Q2 by understeering off the circuit at Tarzan and filling his Persson Mercedes with gravel, while David Coulthard said that 14th was: "better than I expected", following his practice off.

Coulthard edged out his compatriot Susie Stoddart by just a thousandth of a second in Q1, preventing the Persson driver from making it into Q2 by the smallest of margins and leaving her 15th.

Mattias Ekstrom languished down in 16th - his worst grid spot for nine years - after failing to make it into Q2 either.

Pos  Driver                Team/Car          Time       Gap
 1. Bruno Spengler         HWA Mercedes      1m31.805s
 2. Jamie Green            HWA Mercedes      1m31.940s  + 0.135s
 3. Mike Rockenfeller      Abt Audi          1m32.017s  + 0.212s
 4. Martin Tomczyk         Phoenix Audi      1m32.063s  + 0.258s
 5. Gary Paffett           HWA Mercedes      1m31.130s  (Q3)
 6. Timo Scheider          Abt Audi          1m31.148s  (Q3)
 7. Edoardo Mortara        Rosberg Audi      1m31.160s  (Q3)
 8. Ralf Schumacher        HWA Mercedes      1m31.387s  (Q3)
 9. Miguel Molina          Abt Audi          1m31.329s  (Q2)
10. Filipe Albuquerque     Rosberg Audi      1m31.343s  (Q2)
11. Renger van der Zande   Persson Mercedes  1m31.632s  (Q2)
12. Oliver Jarvis          Abt Audi          1m31.729s  (Q2)
13. Maro Engel             Persson Mercedes  1m31.938s  (Q2)
14. David Coulthard        Mucke Mercedes    1m32.007s  (Q2)
15. Susie Stoddart         Persson Mercedes  1m32.197s  (Q1)
16. Mattias Ekstrom        Abt Audi          1m32.236s  (Q1)
17. Christian Vietoris     Mucke Mercedes    1m32.646s  (Q1)
18. Rahel Frey             Phoenix Audi      1m33.436s  (Q1)