Buemi takes Hockenheim pole

The Red Bull-backed Swiss driver lapped his Mucke Motorsport Dallara-Mercedes in 1:33.702, ending the session 0.265 seconds faster than James Jakes of Manor Motorsport.

Buemi had been as much as 0.5 seconds quicker than his nearest rival earlier in the session, and the time he set on his first set of tyres remained fastest through the second tyre runs, which were interupted by a red flag.

"It's just qualifying, the race is the main thing tomorrow," said Buemi. "The car was very good on the first set of tyres, so I was able to set a very fast lap straight away. My main aim is to score points right from the beginning of the year."

Behind Jakes was his Manor team-mate Franck Mailleux, the highest-placed F3 rookie on the grid. He was a further 0.271 seconds slower, however.

Renger van der Zande will start an impressive fourth for Prema Powerteam, and even topped the times in this morning's free practice.

Euroseries dominator ASM had a disastrous session. Fifth fastest Nico Hulkenberg was their only driver in the top 10, with pre-season favourite Romain Grosjean (11th) and Kamui Kobayashi (15th) at a loss to explain why their cars were so slow.

French rookie Jean Karl Vernay was the top Signature car in sixth, ahead of the surprisingly impressive Filip Salaquarda (HBR), Dani Clos (Signature) and Edoardo Mortara (Signature). Yelmer Buurman rounded out the top 10 for Manor.

Qualifying times:

Pos  Driver            Team          Time
 1.  Sebastien Buemi   Mucke         1:33.702
 2.  James Jakes       Manor         1:33.967  + 0.265
 3.  Franck Mailleux   Manor         1:34.238  + 0.536
 4.  R.van der Zande   Prema         1:34.351  + 0.649
 5.  N.Hulkenberg      ASM           1:34.358  + 0.656
 6.  Jean-Karl Vernay  Signature     1:34.389  + 0.687
 7.  Filip Salaquarda  HBR           1:34.404  + 0.702
 8.  Daniel Clos       Signature     1:34.438  + 0.736
 9.  Edoardo Mortara   Signature     1:34.457  + 0.755
10.  Yelmer Buurman    Manor         1:34.503  + 0.801
11.  Romain Grosjean   ASM           1:34.595  + 0.893
12.  Yann Clairay      Signature     1:34.713  + 1.011
13.  Tim Sandtler      Jo Zeller     1:34.839  + 1.137
14.  Edoardo Piscopo   Mucke         1:34.933  + 1.231
15.  Kamui Kobayashi   ASM           1:34.996  + 1.294
16.  H.Schlegelmilch   HS Technik    1:35.092  + 1.390
17.  Sergei Afanasiev  HBR           1:35.165  + 1.463
18.  Michael Herck     Leinders Jnr  1:35.290  + 1.588
19.  Cyndie Allemann   Manor         1:35.377  + 1.675
20.  Michael Patrizi   Prema         1:35.399  + 1.697
21.  Marco Holzer      Holzer        1:35.587  + 1.885
22.  Basil Shaaban     HBR           1:36.138  + 2.436
23.  Tom Dillmann      ASM           1:36.528  + 2.826