Hockenheim DTM: Paffett beats the Audi hordes for pole
Gary Paffett took the final pole position of the 2015 DTM season at Hockenheim, narrowly edging out Audi drivers Jamie Green and Mattias Ekstrom.
Mercedes driver Paffett's benchmark of 1m32.645s came in the dying moments of the session, pipping compatriot Green by the slender margin of 0.038s to become the 14th different polesitter in 18 races.
Ekstrom had been on provisional pole until Paffett and Green's last flying laps, and set a best first sector on his final attempt before encountering traffic in the form of Robert Wickens' Mercedes and running slightly wide at Mobil 1 Kurve.
That meant the Swede had to be content with third, 0.084s off the pace, ahead of fellow Audi man and erstwhile pacesetter Miguel Molina.
Race 1 poleman Maxime Martin was best of the BMWs in fifth place, ahead of the Audis of Adrian Tambay, Nico Muller and Saturday's race winner Timo Scheider.
Maximilian Gotz (Mercedes) and Augusto Farfus (BMW) completed a top 10 split by just three tenths, while newly crowned champion Pascal Wehrlein struggled to a lowly 17th place.
Qualifying results:
| Pos. | Driver | Car | Time | Gap |
| 1 | Gary Paffett | Mercedes | 1'32.645 | |
| 2 | Jamie Green | Audi | 1'32.683 | 0.038 |
| 3 | Mattias Ekstrom | Audi | 1'32.729 | 0.084 |
| 4 | Miguel Molina | Audi | 1'32.746 | 0.101 |
| 5 | Maxime Martin | BMW | 1'32.826 | 0.181 |
| 6 | Adrien Tambay | Audi | 1'32.845 | 0.200 |
| 7 | Nico Muller | Audi | 1'32.861 | 0.216 |
| 8 | Timo Scheider | Audi | 1'32.936 | 0.291 |
| 9 | Maximilian Gotz | Mercedes | 1'32.958 | 0.313 |
| 10 | Augusto Farfus | BMW | 1'32.976 | 0.331 |
| 11 | Paul Di Resta | Mercedes | 1'32.991 | 0.346 |
| 12 | Tom Blomqvist | BMW | 1'33.056 | 0.411 |
| 13 | Edoardo Mortara | Audi | 1'33.064 | 0.419 |
| 14 | Mike Rockenfeller | Audi | 1'33.093 | 0.448 |
| 15 | Bruno Spengler | BMW | 1'33.096 | 0.451 |
| 16 | Marco Wittmann | BMW | 1'33.098 | 0.453 |
| 17 | Pascal Wehrlein | Mercedes | 1'33.120 | 0.475 |
| 18 | Daniel Juncadella | Mercedes | 1'33.163 | 0.518 |
| 19 | Antonio Felix da Costa | BMW | 1'33.223 | 0.578 |
| 20 | Robert Wickens | Mercedes | 1'33.255 | 0.610 |
| 21 | Timo Glock | BMW | 1'33.481 | 0.836 |
| 22 | Lucas Auer | Mercedes | 1'33.549 | 0.904 |
| 23 | Martin Tomczyk | BMW | 1'33.639 | 0.994 |
| 24 | Christian Vietoris | Mercedes | 1'33.801 | 1.156 |
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