Spielberg DTM: Ekstrom on pole in wet Sunday qualifying

The weather in Austria was far from ideal as heavy rain splashed across the Red Bull Ring on Sunday morning. Earlier, the warm-up session was red-flagged due to rain.

Drivers queued up in the pitlane for this second qualifying session as everyone wanted to make the most of the slightly better conditions as the rain eased.

At the start of the session, the drivers were clocking in the 1m49s, but by the end of the session they were faster by seven seconds as Ekstrom, on the final lap after the chequered flag fell, went faster by five thousandths of a second from Audi teammate Mike Rockenfeller.

With rain falling towards the end of the session, it looked like Rockenfeller was on course for pole, but Ekstrom brought a perfect lap together to go quicker with a time of 1m42.010s.

Mercedes' Gary Paffett ended the session in third ahead of championship leader Pascal Wehrlein, with Robert Wickens completing the top five.

Several drivers had off moments as they found it difficult in the wet conditions with so much standing water in some of the corners: Rockenfeller, Paul di Resta and Marco Wittmann were some of the drivers to go off but continue.

Yesterday's polesitter Edoardo Mortara managed only sixth for Audi, while Timo Scheider was seventh and Chritsian Vietoris eighth.

Di Resta was looking good for pole at one point but lost time in the final sector which meant he ended only ninth, while Adrien Tambay completed the top 10.

The BMWs struggled all through the session, as Martin Tomczyk was its best-placed car finishing 14th.

It was a disastrous session for Jamie Green, who compounded his exit from the lead of race one and loss of his points lead with 17th-fastest time today.