Amidst continuing cloudy conditions surrounding Nuremberg, Maxime Martin was able to narrowly secure his first pole position at the Norisring, in what was a hotly-contested qualifying season.
The Belgian would set his best lap time of a 47.472 around the 2.3-km circuit with just seconds to spare, beating current championship leader René Rast by a mere 0.005 seconds after 20 minutes of fast and frantic action.
Martin picks up three points for his efforts, whilst Rast is now on 72 points, three ahead of Lucas Auer, who was the fastest of the Mercedes drivers down in fifth place.
Bruno Spengler rounded out the top three, taking his first qualifying points of the season, with several other drivers including Robert Wickens, Marco Wittmann, Timo Glock and Gary Paffett being in the hunt for pole.
It was the best qualifying efforts of the year for the Munich manufacturer, with five of their M4 DTMs in the top ten. Tom Blomqvist, who set the early pace ended up fourth alongside Spengler, with Wittmann and Glock seventh and eighth.
The best of the Audi drivers, despite being one of many drivers to lock up at certain points out on track, was Team Abt Sportsline’s Mattias Ekström in seventh, with Jamie Green and Nico Müller completing the top ten.
In the last five minutes of the session, the times rapidly tumbled, as the entire field from first to last were covered by 0.651 seconds after the chequered flag fell.
Wickens, fresh from his Indycar adventure at Road America last weekend, was 11th fastest, 0.267 seconds off Martin, ahead of 2013 champion Mike Rockenfeller, Paffett, Edoardo Mortara and Maro Engel, who completed the top 15.
Augusto Farfus will start from 16th on the grid, ahead of Paul Di Resta, who also appeared to struggle, with Loïc Duval last.
Race one, which will last for 55 minutes plus one lap, starts at 1328 local time, with all drivers required to make a mandatory pitstop.
Q1 results
| POS | NO | DRIVER | NAT | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP |
| 1 | 36 | Maxime MARTIN |  |
BMW Team RBM | BMW M4 DTM | 23 | 47.472 | 0.000 |
| 2 | 33 | René RAST |  |
Audi Sport Team Rosberg | Audi RS5 DTM | 21 | 47.477 | 0.005 |
| 3 | 7 | Bruno SPENGLER |  |
BMW Team RBM | BMW M4 DTM | 21 | 47.493 | 0.021 |
| 4 | 31 | Tom BLOMQVIST |  |
BMW Team RMR | BMW M4 DTM | 23 | 47.527 | 0.055 |
| 5 | 22 | Lucas AUER |  |
Mercedes-AMG Motorsport BWT | Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM | 26 | 47.584 | 0.112 |
| 6 | 5 | Mattias EKSTRÖM |  |
Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline | Audi RS5 DTM | 22 | 47.629 | 0.157 |
| 7 | 11 | Marco WITTMANN | |
BMW Team RMG | BMW M4 DTM | 20 | 47.676 | 0.204 |
| 8 | 16 | Timo GLOCK | |
BMW Team RMR | BMW M4 DTM | 21 | 47.692 | 0.220 |
| 9 | 53 | Jamie GREEN | |
Audi Sport Team Rosberg | Audi RS5 DTM | 20 | 47.714 | 0.242 |
| 10 | 51 | Nico MÜLLER |  |
Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline | Audi RS5 DTM | 23 | 47.718 | 0.246 |
| 11 | 6 | Robert WICKENS | |
Mercedes-AMG Motorsport Mercedes me | Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM | 23 | 47.739 | 0.267 |
| 12 | 99 | Mike ROCKENFELLER | |
Audi Sport Team Phoenix | Audi RS5 DTM | 23 | 47.763 | 0.291 |
| 13 | 2 | Gary PAFFETT | |
Mercedes-AMG Motorsport Mercedes me | Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM | 25 | 47.781 | 0.309 |
| 14 | 48 | Edoardo MORTARA |  |
Mercedes-AMG Motorsport BWT | Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM | 25 | 47.813 | 0.341 |
| 15 | 63 | Maro ENGEL | |
Mercedes-AMG Motorsport SILBERPFEIL Energy | Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM | 24 | 47.881 | 0.409 |
| 16 | 15 | Augusto FARFUS |  |
BMW Team RMG | BMW M4 DTM | 21 | 47.883 | 0.411 |
| 17 | 3 | Paul DI RESTA | |
Mercedes-AMG Motorsport SILBERPFEIL Energy | Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM | 25 | 48.014 | 0.542 |
| 18 | 77 | Loïc DUVAL |  |
Audi Sport Team Phoenix | Audi RS5 DTM | 22 | 48.123 | 0.651 |