BMW’s Marco Wittmann beat Audi’s Mike Rockenfeller to claim the first pole position of the DTM’s new Class One era at the Hockenheimring, in a wet qualifying session which saw times continually improving.
Wittmann and Rockenfeller traded the top time for all of the final 11 minutes of the session, with times tumbling from a best of 1 minute 54.887 seconds after nine minutes down to 1 minute 48.215 seconds by the end of the session.
Rockenfeller had gone to the top of the ranking three times in the final ten minutes, but with 2 minutes to go Wittmann improved his lap, before twice bettering his own time to claim pole by less than a tenth of a second.
Paul di Resta was an impressive third fastest with a late lap in the best of the new R-Motorsport Aston Martin cars, the Brit being the only other driver within a second of the pace in tricky conditions at Hockenheim.
Audi’s René Rast, who was the first to top the times, ended up in fourth, 1.295 seconds away from the best time set by Wittmann,
Robin Frijns was fifth quickest for Team Abt Sportsline, ahead of another Aston Martin of Brit Jake Dennis in sixth, just over a second a half from pole.
BMW Team RBM rookie Sheldon van der Linde was seventh ahead of his DTM début, with BMW Team RMG’s timo Glock in eighth.
Joel Eriksson and Nico Müller completed the top ten for BMW Team RBM and Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline respectively.
Philipp Eng was the only driver to fail to post a lap time in the session, with his BMW coming to a halt at the pitlane exit after less than five minutes, prompting an early red flag stoppage whilst his M4 was recovered.
Race one gets underway at 13:30 CEST (12:30 BST).
Qualifying result
| POS | NO | DRIVER | NAT | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP |
| 1 | 11 | Marco WITTMANN |  |
BMW Team RMG | BMW M4 DTM | 11 | 1:48.215 | 0.000 |
| 2 | 99 | Mike ROCKENFELLER | |
Audi Sport Team Phoenix | Audi RS5 DTM | 11 | 1:48.281 | 0.066 |
| 3 | 3 | Paul DI RESTA |  |
R-Motorsport | Aston Martin Vantage DTM | 10 | 1:49.191 | 0.976 |
| 4 | 33 | René RAST | |
Audi Sport Team Rosberg | Audi RS5 DTM | 12 | 1:49.510 | 1.295 |
| 5 | 4 | Robin FRIJNS |  |
Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline | Audi RS5 DTM | 12 | 1:49.535 | 1.320 |
| 6 | 76 | Jake DENNIS | |
R-Motorsport | Aston Martin Vantage DTM | 12 | 1:49.762 | 1.547 |
| 7 | 31 | Sheldon VAN DER LINDE |  |
BMW Team RBM | BMW M4 DTM | 12 | 1:50.331 | 2.116 |
| 8 | 16 | Timo GLOCK | |
BMW Team RMG | BMW M4 DTM | 11 | 1:50.509 | 2.294 |
| 9 | 47 | Joel ERIKSSON |  |
BMW Team RBM | BMW M4 DTM | 12 | 1:50.626 | 2.411 |
| 10 | 51 | Nico MÜLLER |  |
Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline | Audi RS5 DTM | 12 | 1:50.839 | 2.624 |
| 11 | 23 | Daniel JUNCADELLA |  |
R-Motorsport | Aston Martin Vantage DTM | 12 | 1:50.884 | 2.669 |
| 12 | 28 | Loïc DUVAL |  |
Audi Sport Team Phoenix | Audi RS5 DTM | 12 | 1:50.909 | 2.694 |
| 13 | 53 | Jamie GREEN | |
Audi Sport Team Rosberg | Audi RS5 DTM | 12 | 1:50.914 | 2.699 |
| 14 | 7 | Bruno SPENGLER |  |
BMW Team RMG | BMW M4 DTM | 12 | 1:51.094 | 2.879 |
| 15 | 21 | Pietro FITTIPALDI |  |
Audi Sport Team WRT | Audi RS5 DTM | 12 | 1:51.287 | 3.072 |
| 16 | 27 | Jonathan ABERDEIN | |
Audi Sport Team WRT | Audi RS5 DTM | 11 | 1:52.901 | 4.686 |
| 17 | 62 | Ferdinand VON HABSBURG |  |
R-Motorsport | Aston Martin Vantage DTM | 12 | 1:55.470 | 7.255 |
| 18 | 25 | Philipp ENG | |
BMW Team RBM | BMW M4 DTM | 0 | No time | N/A |