Spengler snatches wet Norisring pole

The Mercedes driver snatched the position from Mika Hakkinen at the end of the session, and the Finn will join him on the front row for Sunday's race.

Brands Hatch race winner Bernd Schneider will start third, while Gary Paffett was the only driver not in a 2007-specification car to get into the top eight, and he will start fourth.

Timo Scheider is the top Audi runner in fifth place, while Jamie Green will start sixth. The British driver will be hoping to make progress from there though, as he has already finished sixth three times this season.

Mattias Ekstrom sneaked into the final segment of qualifying with a last-minute effort that bumped Christian Abt out of eighth place, but the Swede could only manage a lap good enough for seventh place in the final session.

Tom Kristensen also made it through to the pole-deciding session on his DTM return, although the Dane will start eighth on the grid.

Paul di Resta was unable to repeat his performances from the dry free practice sessions, and narrowly missed out on making it into the top eight during the second segment of qualifying.

The Scottish driver will start ninth on the grid, just ahead of Abt, who had been fastest in the first segment of the session.

Championship leader Martin Tomczyk will start 11th on the grid, but the Audi driver admitted that he was not too concerned, as it is possible to overtake around the street circuit.

The session was relatively incident-free considering the awful conditions. Alexandre Premat was the only driver to crash, and his accident at Turn 2 meant he could not improve on 15th position.

Pos  Driver            Make        Time
 1.  Bruno Spengler    Mercedes      55.963     
 2.  Mika Hakkinen     Mercedes      56.199  + 0.236
 3.  Bernd Schneider   Mercedes      56.261  + 0.298
 4.  Gary Paffett      Mercedes      56.447  + 0.484
 5.  Timo Scheider     Audi          56.527  + 0.564
 6.  Jamie Green       Mercedes      56.584  + 0.621
 7.  Mattias Ekström   Audi          56.678  + 0.715
 8.  Tom Kristensen    Audi          56.746  + 0.783
 9.  Paul Di Resta     Mercedes      57.259  + 1.296
10.  Christian Abt     Audi          57.322  + 1.359
11.  Martin Tomczyk    Audi          57.381  + 1.418
12.  Susie Stoddart    Mercedes      57.768  + 1.805
13.  Daniel La Rosa    Mercedes      57.811  + 1.848
14.  Vanina Ickx       Audi          58.072  + 2.109
15.  Alexandre Premat  Audi          57.804  + 1.841
16.  Adam Carroll      Audi          58.012  + 2.049
17.  A.Margaritis      Mercedes      58.410  + 2.447
18.  M.Rockenfeller    Audi          58.556  + 2.593
19.  Lucas Luhr        Audi          59.160  + 3.197 
20.  Mathias Lauda     Mercedes    1:00.190  + 4.227