Mercedes’ Pascal Wehrlein scored his first-ever Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters pole position in qualifying at the Lausitzring, ahead of Audi’s Mattias Ekström and Jamie Green.
After lengthy delays at the east German circuit, qualifying eventually got underway at 16:45 unhindered by the fog that had earlier disrupted the day’s timetable.
Q1 was a short affair after BMW’s Joey Hand brought out the red flags after just two minutes. The resulting stoppage saw all 22 cars except Hand progress to Q2, whilst the American was forced to sit out the session having been helped out of the gravel trap which he spun his car into.
Wehrlein, had earlier third fastest in Q2 and went on to take the top time in the final qualifying segment by just 0.057 seconds from Swede Ekström, who had previously beaten the German to second in Q2.
The result means that Wehrlein is the youngest-ever pole sitter in DTM history at just 19 years old.
Phoenix Audi’s Timo Scheider was fourth fastest, despite having earlier topped Q2 and been one of the quickest drivers in Q3. Scheider has also equalled his best grid position of the season.
Daniel Juncadella was fifth and posted his best qualifying result of the season, with the Mercedes driver just 0.239 seconds off team-mate Wehrlein’s pole lap.
Abt Audi’s Miguel Molina was sixth, ahead of championship leader Marco Wittmann in seventh. Wittmann was the only BMW driver to make it through to Q3, with the Munich manufacturer once again struggling at the Lausitzring.
Mercedes’ Gary Paffett was eighth and the last driver to make it through to Q3 – only the second time this season that the Brit has done so.
Completing the top ten were BMW’s Timo Glock, who missed out on entry into Q3 by 0.046 seconds, and Audi’s outgoing champion Mike Rockenfeller.
In the battle for second in the championship Ekström has the upper hand with a front-row grid position, ahead of Rockenfeller in tenth. Edoardo Mortara could only manage 13th position, whilst Bruno Spengler fared even less well with the 17th best time.
Elsewhere Russian Vitaly Petrov enjoyed his best qualifying session to-date, with the Mercedes driver posting the 14th fastest time.
Round 8 of the championship takes place on Sunday at 13:33 CEST (12:33 BST)
Top ten times
| POS | NO | DRIVER | NAT | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP |
| 1 | 25 | Pascal WEHRLEIN |  |
gooix AMG Mercedes | DTM Mercedes AMG C-Coupé | 9 | 1:17.547 | |
| 2 | 7 | Mattias EKSTRÖM |  |
Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline | Audi RS5 DTM | 8 | 1:17.604 | 0.057 |
| 3 | 21 | Jamie GREEN |  |
Audi Sport Team Rosberg | Audi RS5 DTM | 7 | 1:17.715 | 0.168 |
| 4 | 2 | Timo SCHEIDER | |
Audi Sport Team Phoenix | Audi RS5 DTM | 7 | 1:17.761 | 0.214 |
| 5 | 19 | Daniel JUNCADELLA |  |
Petronas AMG Mercedes | DTM Mercedes AMG C-Coupé | 8 | 1:17.779 | 0.232 |
| 6 | 8 | Miguel MOLINA | |
Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline | Audi RS5 DTM | 8 | 1:17.786 | 0.239 |
| 7 | 23 | Marco WITTMANN | |
BMW Team RMG | BMW M4 DTM | 8 | 1:18.143 | 0.596 |
| 8 | 11 | Gary PAFFETT | |
EURONICS AMG Mercedes | DTM Mercedes AMG C-Coupé | 8 | 1:18.291 | 0.744 |
| The below times are from Q2: | ||||||||
| 9 | 17 | Timo GLOCK | |
BMW Team MTEK | BMW M4 DTM | 14 | 1:18.141 | 0.442 |
| 10 | 1 | Mike ROCKENFELLER | |
Audi Sport Team Phoenix | Audi RS5 DTM | 16 | 1:18.150 | 0.451 |