Nürburgring Nordschleife expert Benjamin Leuchter scored a first-ever FIA World Touring Car Cup pole position in qualifying for races two and three, in a session which took place on a drying circuit.
Leuchter emerged as the fastest driver at the end of the second 40-minute qualifying session of the day, posting the quickest lap of all at the very end, despite there being a Code 60 yellow-flag zone at the final sequence of turns after Daniel Haglöf crashed into the barriers.
With just one minute left of normal time, Haglöf had been set to better his lap when the Swede crashed his CUPRA at Tiergarten, creating a slow 60 kph zone.
But with the track drying out, drivers were able to make up more time in the rest of the lap to negate the time lost in the final sector around Haglöf’s stricken car.
That meant that Leuchter had been able to improve his time, pipping SLR team-mate Rob Huff by just under 1.5 seconds to give Volkswagen a 1-2 for the final race on Saturday.
Esteban Guerrieri put his Münnich Motorsport Honda in third, following the pole position he took earlier in the day for Friday’s first race.
Just two minutes prior, Norbert Michelisz held the fastest time, but the BRC Racing driver ended up in fourth, four seconds off the pace, ahead of BRC team-mate Gabriele Tarquini in fifth.
Mehdi Bennani was sixth fastest in his Volkswagen, ahead of the best Audi of Frédéric Vervisch in seventh.
KCMG Honda’s Attila Tassi was eighth, although he is under investigation, whilst the top ten was completed by wildcard entry Antti Buri and SLR’s Johan Kristoffersson, giving the latter the reverse-grid pole position for race two.
Buri had earlier held the top time just before Haglöf’s shunt, but the Finn was unable to improve by more than the margin he slowed down by in the final sector, and didn’t go faster on his final run.
BRC’s Augusto Farfus was 11th, missing out on the reversed-grid promotion by one second.
The Lynk & Co drivers failed to perform in qualifying, with Yann Ehrlacher the best of the Cyan Racing drivers in 17th, directly ahead of team-mates Andy Priaulx, Thed Björk and Yvan Muller in 18th, 19th and 20th respectively.
BRC Racing’s Nicky Catsburg was just 23rd after the Dutchman hit the barriers half an hour into the session, breaking his front-left suspension and preventing the Hyundai driver completing a third flying lap.
Race one gets underway at 17:30 CEST (16:30 BST) on Friday.
Qualifying result
| POS | NO | DRIVER | NAT | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP |
| 1 | 33 | Benjamin LEUCHTER |  |
SLR Volkswagen | Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR | 3 | 9:51.327 | 0.000 |
| 2 | 12 | Rob HUFF |  |
SLR VW Motorsport | Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR | 3 | 9:52.809 | 1.482 |
| 3 | 86 | Esteban GUERRIERI |  |
ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport | Honda Civic Type R TCR | 3 | 9:53.224 | 1.897 |
| 4 | 5 | Norbert MICHELISZ |  |
BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 3 | 9:55.425 | 4.098 |
| 5 | 1 | Gabriele TARQUINI |  |
BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 3 | 9:55.574 | 4.247 |
| 6 | 25 | Mehdi BENNANI |  |
SLR VW Motorsport | Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR | 3 | 9:57.024 | 5.697 |
| 7 | 22 | Frédéric VERVISCH |  |
Comtoyou Team Audi Sport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 3 | 9:57.172 | 5.845 |
| 8 | 9 | Attila TASSI | |
KCMG | Honda Civic Type R TCR | 3 | 9:57.232 | 5.905 |
| 9 | 13 | Antti BURI |  |
AS Motorsport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 3 | 9:57.291 | 5.964 |
| 10 | 14 | Johan KRISTOFFERSSON |  |
SLR Volkswagen | Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR | 3 | 9:57.497 | 6.170 |
| 11 | 8 | Augusto FARFUS |  |
BRC Hyundai N LUKOIL Racing Team | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 3 | 9:58.444 | 7.117 |
| 12 | 21 | Aurélien PANIS |  |
Comtoyou DHL Team CUPRA Racing | CUPRA TCR | 3 | 9:59.414 | 8.087 |
| 13 | 50 | Tom CORONEL |  |
Comtoyou DHL Team CUPRA Racing | CUPRA TCR | 3 | 10:00.776 | 9.449 |
| 14 | 18 | Tiago MONTEIRO |  |
KCMG | Honda Civic Type R TCR | 3 | 10:01.827 | 10.500 |
| 15 | 69 | Jean-Karl VERNAY | |
Leopard Racing Team Audi Sport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 2 | 10:02.541 | 11.214 |
| 16 | 52 | Gordon SHEDDEN | |
Leopard Racing Team Audi Sport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 3 | 10:02.557 | 11.230 |
| 17 | 68 | Yann EHRLACHER | |
Cyan Performance Lynk & Co | Lynk & Co 03 TCR | 3 | 10:04.554 | 13.227 |
| 18 | 111 | Andy PRIAULX | |
Cyan Performance Lynk & Co | Lynk & Co 03 TCR | 3 | 10:04.746 | 13.419 |
| 19 | 11 | Thed BJÖRK | |
Cyan Racing Lynk & Co | Lynk & Co 03 TCR | 3 | 10:05.515 | 14.188 |
| 20 | 100 | Yvan MULLER | |
Cyan Racing Lynk & Co | Lynk & Co 03 TCR | 3 | 10:07.248 | 15.921 |
| 21 | 31 | Kevin CECCON | |
Team Mulsanne | Alfa Romeo Giulietta TCR | 3 | 10:08.998 | 17.671 |
| 22 | 37 | Daniel HAGLÖF | |
PWR Racing | CUPRA TCR | 2 | 10:18.123 | 26.796 |
| 23 | 88 | Nicky CATSBURG | |
BRC Hyundai N LUKOIL Racing Team | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 2 | 10:21.225 | 29.898 |
| 24 | 29 | Néstor GIROLAMI | |
ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport | Honda Civic Type R TCR | 1 | 10:25.268 | 33.941 |
| 25 | 96 | Mikel AZCONA |  |
PWR Racing | CUPRA TCR | 2 | 10:26.565 | 35.238 |
| 26 | 10 | Niels LANGEVELD | |
Comtoyou Team Audi Sport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 2 | 10:27.096 | 35.769 |
| 27 | 55 | Ma QING HUA |  |
Team Mulsanne | Alfa Romeo Giulietta TCR | 2 | 10:39.128 | 47.801 |