Maxime Martin claimed the DTM Series pole position at the Norisring by 0.005s over championship leader Rene Rast.
Lucas Auer was on top of the pile in his Mercedes after the first runs, continuing his pace from second practice earlier in the morning.
The Austrian was dislodged by his former FIA Formula 3 rival Tom Blomqvist as the drivers got their second runs underway.
The BMW Team RMR driver did not remain on top for long as Friday’s pacesetter Bruno Spengler moved in front before he too was beaten by Rast.
Martin slipped in between the pair to claim second place, before jumping to the top spot on his final run.
Three BMW‘s line up in the top four in a much more positive weekend so far for the Bavarian team.
Auer was only able to find a minimal improvement on his second run to take fifth and head the Mercedes challenge, as their only representative in the top ten.
Mattias Ekström, who has opted to race here at the Norisring over his home race in the FIA World RX, joins Auer on the third row.
BMW pair Marco Wittmann and Timo Glock claim residency of the fourth row.
‘Mr Norisring’, Jamie Green, could only take nine in his Audi with Nico Muller rounding off the top ten.
Muller and Edoardo Mortara were both reported to the stewards for blocking but no decisions have been taken thus far.
Throughout the practice sessions the field was close together and were even more so in the first qualifying of the weekend – all 18 drivers were separated by 0.651 seconds.
