Farfus tops dramatic qualifying

All the major players made it safely into the top 10 shootout, but a heavy grey cloud rolled in over the German circuit for the start.

The nine cars - Tiago Monteiro could not take his place in Q2 after clipping tyres at the chicane during Q1 and breaking his SEAT's right front wheel - all went straight out to set a time before the rain.

The first spots came during those flying laps, on which the BMWs of Farfus and Andy Priaulx were fastest.

Gabriele Tarquini, Rob Huff and Jordi Gene all needed a second lap after setting uncompetitive times on their first attempts. Huff was the only one to make a significant jump up the order, onto the front row.

On his next circuit, with the rain now falling more heavily, he lost control of his Chevrolet Cruze and ran wide into a half-spin. He managed to catch it, but as he got it back onto the track he banged doors with team-mate Alain Menu and both cars spun off.

Simultaneously, Tarquini was caught out by the rain and slid straight on and into the wall, and Norbert Michelisz also had a trip across the grass.

The incidents prompted a red flag with just three minutes left on the clock. It was confirmed that the session would not be restarted just as a heavy downpour erupted.

Priaulx and Menu wound up on the second row, ahead of Michelisz and Tarquini on the third, Tom Coronel and Yvan Muller, and Jordi Gene.

Pos  Driver              Car        Q1         Q2
 1.  Augusto Farfus      BMW        1m36.228s  1m38.070s
 2.  Rob Huff            Chevrolet  1m35.518s  1m38.176s
 3.  Andy Priaulx        BMW        1m36.326s  1m38.186s
 4.  Alain Menu          Chevrolet  1m36.174s  1m38.445s
 5.  Norbert Michelisz   SEAT       1m36.131s  1m38.634s
 6.  Gabriele Tarquini   SEAT       1m36.027s  1m38.796s
 7.  Tom Coronel         SEAT       1m36.509s  1m38.810s
 8.  Yvan Muller         Chevrolet  1m36.111s  1m38.869s
 9.  Jordi Gene          SEAT       1m36.071s  1m39.994s
10.  Tiago Monteiro      SEAT       1m36.537s  no time
11.  Michel Nykjaer      SEAT       1m36.654s
12.  Fredy Barth         SEAT       1m36.844s
13.  Stefano D'Aste      BMW        1m36.881s
14.  Sergio Hernandez    BMW        1m37.282s
15.  Franz Engstler      BMW        1m37.309s
16.  Darryl O'Young      Chevrolet  1m37.532s
17.  Kristian Poulsen    BMW        1m37.579s
18.  Mehdi Bennani       BMW        1m38.091s
19.  Yukinori Taniguchi  Chevrolet  1m38.203s
20.  Andrey Romanov      BMW        1m39.190s
21.  Fabio Fabiani       BMW        1m41.877s