Championship leader René Rast beat title rival to pole position for the first DMT race of the weekend at the Hockenheimring, growing his points advantage to 20 ahead of race one later in the day.
Rast posted a time of 1 minute 28.405 seconds in a cool and dry qualifying session, the German being on top throughout the session.
On his first run Rast was over half a second clear of Müller, but the Swiss racer responded in the second half of the session to post a lap just 0.048 seconds shy of Rast, who also improved his time by a further 0.029 seconds on his final run.
Pole, Rast’s sixth of the season, moves the Team Rosberg driver to 20 points ahead of his main title rival.
Jonathan Aberdein was the leading BMW driver with his best qualifying effort of the year so far in third, just under half a second adrift as the top two dominated the session.
Rast’s team-mate Jamie Green had been second after the first runs with an identical time to Müller, but the Brit was only able to find an extra five thousandths of a second on his lap in the second half of the session and ended up in fourth.
BMW’s Sheldon van der Linde and Philipp Eng were fifth and sixth respectively, as the Munich marque enjoyed a slight upturn in pace in the morning qualifying session.
Audi’s Loïc Duval was seventh, ahead of the only other title contender of Robin Frijns in eighth, the Dutchman over seven tenths off the pace of his rivals.
Audi’s Mike Rockenfeller and WRT’s Fabio Scherer completed the top ten. The independent BMW of Robert Kubica was 11th fastest, the Pole being the only other driver within a second of the pace.
Race one gets underway at 12:30 GMT (13:30 CET).
Qualifying results
| POS | NO | DRIVER | NAT | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP |
| 1 | 33 | René RAST |  |
Audi Sport Team Rosberg | Audi RS5 DTM | 11 | 1:28.405 | 0.000 |
| 2 | 51 | Nico MÜLLER |  |
Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline | Audi RS5 DTM | 12 | 1:28.453 | 0.048 |
| 3 | 27 | Jonathan ABERDEIN |  |
BMW Team RMR | BMW M4 DTM | 11 | 1:28.891 | 0.486 |
| 4 | 53 | Jamie GREEN |  |
Audi Sport Team Rosberg | Audi RS5 DTM | 11 | 1:28.929 | 0.524 |
| 5 | 31 | Sheldon VAN DER LINDE | |
BMW Team RBM | BMW M4 DTM | 12 | 1:29.026 | 0.621 |
| 6 | 25 | Philipp ENG |  |
BMW Team RBM | BMW M4 DTM | 11 | 1:29.087 | 0.682 |
| 7 | 28 | Loïc DUVAL |  |
Audi Sport Team Phoenix | Audi RS5 DTM | 12 | 1:29.118 | 0.713 |
| 8 | 4 | Robin FRIJNS |  |
Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline | Audi RS5 DTM | 12 | 1:29.137 | 0.732 |
| 9 | 99 | Mike ROCKENFELLER | |
Audi Sport Team Phoenix | Audi RS5 DTM | 12 | 1:29.176 | 0.771 |
| 10 | 13 | Fabio SCHERER | |
Audi Sport Team WRT | Audi RS5 DTM | 11 | 1:29.287 | 0.882 |
| 11 | 8 | Robert KUBICA |  |
BMW Team ART | Audi RS5 DTM | 12 | 1:29.300 | 0.895 |
| 12 | 62 | Ferdinand VON HABSBURG | |
Audi Sport Team WRT | Audi RS5 DTM | 11 | 1:29.599 | 1.194 |
| 13 | 16 | Timo GLOCK | |
BMW Team RMG | BMW M4 DTM | 12 | 1:29.599 | 1.194 |
| 14 | 11 | Marco WITTMANN | |
BMW Team RMG | BMW M4 DTM | 11 | 1:29.628 | 1.223 |
| 15 | 10 | Harrison NEWEY | |
Audi Sport Team WRT | Audi RS5 DTM | 12 | 1:29.749 | 1.344 |
| 16 | 22 | Lucas AUER | |
BMW Team RMR | BMW M4 DTM | 12 | 1:29.867 | 1.462 |