The Swedish championship leader and Goldstein nabbed pole position under the rain, also getting the point awarded to the winner of the qualifying practices. This could prove important for classification purposes, since it is an advantage of one point over Pietro Zumerle, who will be starting off right behind him.

In the following 20 minutes of qualifying practices, contended without rain but on a wet track, the pole position went to Paolo Necchi, who after two second places in Friday’s free practices and a third place in the first qualifying session, proved he feels at ease in the German track. The first row is completed with Zumerle, who fought long and hard against Necchi before having to leave the track early. The third driver is Smurra, who snatched the position away from his fellow countryman Enrico Moncada at the last moment.

Peter Sundberg: “The rain made the track slicker than I would have expected, but despite that I made good time and tomorrow I’ll be starting off from the pole position. I made a mistake in the last sector right in the last lap, but luckily it did not affect the outcome of the race and I was able to defend myself from Zumerle’s attack. I’d rather race in dry conditions tomorrow: it would certainly be less risky, but I’m ready to race under the rain too”.

Paolo Necchi: “I had never raced at Oschersleben, but I fell into a good speed rhythm right away, right after the free practices. I knew that getting the pole position in the first qualifying practices against Sundberg would be tough, but I was close to him for most of the session anyway. Zumerle was very good at snatching away that second position from me right at the last lap. I got my pole position in the second qualifying practices anyway. Taking off from first row always gives an edge over the rest and even more so on this track, as the first curve is very narrow and there is no way to escape it”.

Race 1 and race 2 are scheduled for tomorrow Sunday, 5 September, 8.15am -8.55am GMT and 3.15pm-3.55pm GMT, respectively.