Valencia pole for Mattias Ekström

Mattias Ekström prevented Mercedes from securing their 100th DTM pole position, by heading Bruno Spengler in qualifying in Valencia. The Swede secured his 15th career DTM pole with a time of 1:29.565 to edge out Spengler by 0.016 seconds with the final lap of qualifying.

Ekström, who also topped Saturday’s early practice session, was the fastest driver in Q3, securing himself the final slot in Q4’s run-off. After a solid run through the first two sectors of Valencia’s Ricardo Tormo circuit the Red Bull backed driver had built himself a healthy advantage over Spengler’s time, but an error in the final sector saw the gap reduced to just 0.016 at the line.

Oliver Jarvis took third ahead of Mercedes duo Garry Paffett and Paul Di Resta, the latter of whom heads the cars eliminated in the penultimate session of qualifying.

From sixth down to eleventh will be an Audi lock-out, with Mike Rockenfeller heading the way in his 2008-spec machine, ahead of fellow ’08 runners Miguel Molina and Alexandre Prémat, with 2009 runners Martin Tomczyk and reigning champion Timo Scheider rounding out the top ten.

Further back David Coulthard made it through to Q2 for the first time in his DTM career, ending qualifying in 14th position, and so sharing row seven with his former Formula One counterpart Ralf Schumacher.

Maro Engel, Cong Fu Cheng, Susie Stoddart and Katherine Legge all failed to progress from the opening section of qualifying.