Mercedes driver Robert Wickens took his maiden DTM pole position with an impressive performance in qualifying at the Norisring, as championship leader Mike Rockenfeller had a disastrous day.

After topping the first part of qualifying and easily progressing into the single-lap Q4 shootout, Wickens took provisional pole in his HWA C-coupe in 48.384 seconds.

Champion Bruno Spengler, the only man left to make his Q4 effort after Wickens, then fell short by 0.059sec in his Schnitzer BMW, completing an all-Canadian front row.

Wickens’ teammate Gary Paffett and Rosberg Audi driver Edoardo Mortara completed the front two rows.

Mercedes driver Pascal Wehrlein will start in a career-best fifth spot while Andy Priaulx equaled his best in the DTM with sixth for the RMG BMW squad, having impressively set the pace in Q2.

Wehrlein’s RSC Mucke team-mate Daniel Juncadella was another to qualify higher than ever before in seventh while Filipe Albuquerque, Mattias Ekstrom – who spun at the final corner in Q2 — and Christian Vietoris completed the top 10.

Abt Audi driver Jamie Green, who has won four of the past five Norisring DTM races, will start down in 14th after missing out on Q3. Rockenfeller, who is level on points with Spengler at the top of the championship but ahead of countback, fared even worse.

The Phoenix Audi driver starts 19th after late Q1 laps from Augusto Farfus and Joey Hand forced him out of the reckoning for the next part of the session.

Pos  Driver              Team/Car        Time     Gap 1.  Robert Wickens      HWA Mercedes    48.384s 2.  Bruno Spengler      Schnitzer BMW   48.443s  +0.059s 3.  Gary Paffett        HWA Mercedes    48.460s  +0.076s 4.  Edoardo Mortara     Rosberg Audi    48.490s  +0.106s 5.  Pascal Wehrlein     Mucke Mercedes  48.356s  Q3 6.  Andy Priaulx        RMG BMW         48.406s  Q3 7.  Daniel Juncadella   Mucke Mercedes  48.410s  Q3 8.  Filipe Albuquerque  Rosberg Audi    48.454s  Q3 9.  Mattias Ekstrom     Abt Audi        48.456s  Q310.  Christian Vietoris  HWA Mercedes    48.485s  Q311.  Adrien Tambay       Abt Audi        48.443s  Q212.  Marco Wittmann      MTEK BMW        48.446s  Q213.  Timo Scheider       Abt Audi        48.459s  Q214.  Jamie Green         Abt Audi        48.465s  Q215.  Augusto Farfus      RBM BMW         48.628s  Q216.  Timo Glock          MTEK BMW        48.724s  Q217.  Martin Tomczyk      RMG BMW         48.632s  Q118.  Joey Hand           RBM BMW         48.636s  Q119.  Mike Rockenfeller   Phoenix Audi    48.644s  Q120.  Dirk Werner         Schnitzer BMW   48.656s  Q121.  Roberto Merhi       HWA Mercedes    48.848s  Q122.  Miguel Molina       Phoenix Audi    48.874s  Q1