Bruno Spengler has scored his third DTM pole position from four races in 2011 with a strong performance in qualifying at the Lausitzring.
The Canadian ran third in the deciding Q4 segment, and beat Mattias Ekstrom by nearly half a second to go quickest. His HWA Mercedes teammate Jamie Green was the fourth and final man to go, and was four tenths slower than Spengler.
Martin Tomczyk was the other driver to get through Q4, but the Spielberg winner was the slowest of the quartet and so will line up fourth on the grid behind Ekstrom.
Gary Paffett failed to make it out of Q3 in fifth place, ahead of fellow Brit Oliver Jarvis. DTM returnee Tom Kristensen and rookie Filipe Albuquerque will share the fourth row.
Timo Scheider missed the cut for Q3 in ninth place, ahead of Christian Vietoris. Despite setting the pace in Q1, Edoardo Mortara could only manage 12th in the following session. Ralf Schumacher qualified down in 17th of the 18 runners.
