Audi’s championship leader Nico Müller claimed his second DTM pole position of the season on the Nürburgring Grand Prix circuit, ending the session a comfortable two tenths clear of rival René Rast.
Müller ended the session as the only driver to lap the GP circuit in the 1 minute 46 seconds bracket, with his time of 1:46.834 being 0.221 seconds ahead of Rast.
The Swiss racer had trailed Rast earlier in the session, but once again found the edge in his Abt Sportsline Audi to rise to the top on a sunny day in the Eifel mountains.
“It was a very good qualifying,” said Müller. “Finally, I felt like we managed to have a clean run also in the qualifying and feeling confident in the car to extract the maximum.
“The team has really done a good job all weekend long again. We put the car on the ground on Friday and it felt good and we knew what we could improve, and we presumably did the right steps, as today the car felt even a little bit better.
“I’m happy with the start of the day but the big job is still ahead of us.”
Reigning champion Rast had been quickest in the first half of the session but found himself unable to match Müller’s pace and having to settle for starting alongside him on the front row of the grid.
Müller’s team-mate Robin Frijns was third, albeit almost six tenths off the pace, as Audi again scored a 1-2-3 qualifying result.
Marco Wittmann was BMW’s best driver in fourth, 0.659 seconds adrift, ahead of Audi duo Mike Rockenfeller in fifth and WRT’s Ferdinand von Habsburg in sixth.
The DTM’s newest race winner, Sheldon van der Linde, claimed seventh for BMW, ahead of Audi’s Jamie Green in eighth.
Audi’s Loïc Duval and BMW’s Philipp Eng completed the top ten, the latter being 1.104 seconds off the pole time.
South African Jonathan Aberdein had looked set for a top ten time, but the BMW driver went extremely wide at Turn 10 on a fast lap and, with dirt on his tyres, was unable to improve thereafter as others around him went quicker.
The first race of the weekend is scheduled to get underway at 13:30 CEST (12:30 BST).
Qualifying results
| POS | NO | DRIVER | NAT | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP |
| 1 | 51 | Nico MÜLLER |  |
Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline | Audi RS5 DTM | 10 | 1:46.834 | 0.000 |
| 2 | 33 | René RAST |  |
Audi Sport Team Rosberg | Audi RS5 DTM | 9 | 1:47.055 | 0.221 |
| 3 | 4 | Robin FRIJNS |  |
Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline | Audi RS5 DTM | 10 | 1:47.428 | 0.594 |
| 4 | 11 | Marco WITTMANN | |
BMW Team RMG | BMW M4 DTM | 8 | 1:47.493 | 0.659 |
| 5 | 99 | Mike ROCKENFELLER | |
Audi Sport Team Phoenix | Audi RS5 DTM | 9 | 1:47.549 | 0.715 |
| 6 | 62 | Ferdinand VON HABSBURG |  |
Audi Sport Team WRT | Audi RS5 DTM | 9 | 1:47.556 | 0.722 |
| 7 | 31 | Sheldon VAN DER LINDE |  |
BMW Team RBM | BMW M4 DTM | 10 | 1:47.631 | 0.797 |
| 8 | 53 | Jamie GREEN |  |
Audi Sport Team Rosberg | Audi RS5 DTM | 10 | 1:47.642 | 0.808 |
| 9 | 28 | Loïc DUVAL |  |
Audi Sport Team Phoenix | Audi RS5 DTM | 10 | 1:47.751 | 0.917 |
| 10 | 25 | Philipp ENG | |
BMW Team RBM | BMW M4 DTM | 9 | 1:47.938 | 1.104 |
| 11 | 22 | Lucas AUER | |
BMW Team RMR | BMW M4 DTM | 9 | 1:47.968 | 1.134 |
| 12 | 16 | Timo GLOCK | |
BMW Team RMG | BMW M4 DTM | 9 | 1:48.034 | 1.200 |
| 13 | 27 | Jonathan ABERDEIN | |
BMW Team RMR | BMW M4 DTM | 10 | 1:48.096 | 1.262 |
| 14 | 10 | Harrison NEWEY | |
Audi Sport Team WRT | Audi RS5 DTM | 10 | 1:48.206 | 1.372 |
| 15 | 8 | Robert KUBICA |  |
BMW Team ART | Audi RS5 DTM | 9 | 1:48.450 | 1.616 |
| 16 | 13 | Fabio SCHERER | |
Audi Sport Team WRT | Audi RS5 DTM | 9 | 1:48.935 | 2.101 |