As on the previous day, it did not become clear exactly who would claim the top spot on the grid until the session was practically over, as the lead changed hands with every second almost. But then, van der Linde struck and set the final best time of 1:38.326 minutes. "It could hardly have gone better," said the delighted South African. The last time he was fastest in a quali was in 2014 at the Sachsenring. "I'm not known for being very strong at qualifying, but we worked hard to get it right this time. The team gave me a perfect car and I drove a perfect lap. I'm extremely proud. We wanted to fight back on the track after what happened yesterday, but it's a long race. We'll have to wait and see how much the tyres degrade. Interesting question!" said van der Linde. He and HCB-Rutronik Racing team-mate Patric Niederhauser have a 38-point lead in the overall standings with three races remaining. If they can extend the gap on the drivers in second place to more than 50 points in today's race, then they will be crowned champions before the season has even ended.

They have an excellent chance of doing just that, since main rivals Mirko Bortolotti and Christian Engelhart (Orange1 by GRT Grasser) only qualified tenth on the grid in the Lamborghini. "That's not the grid slot we'd hoped to achieve," said Engelhart. "Now we have to make sure that our race goes as well as possible, which will certainly be difficult with the extra weight following yesterday's win. So, bearing all that in mind, we'll just have to try to secure as many points as we can." Markus Pommer and Marvin Kirchhöfer are ranked third overall in the championship standings but only qualified 14th. They crashed their Corvette C7 GT3-R in Saturday's race and Callaway Competition had to put in a night shift to rebuild it. They have a 50-point deficit on the front-runners.

Lamborghini drivers, Rolf Ineichen (41, CH) and Franck Perera (35, FRA, both Orange1 by GRT Grasser) took second place in Sunday's race against the clock. Perera missed his third pole of the year by just 0.053 seconds on his hot lap. Ricardo Feller (19, CH) and Dries Vanthoor (21, BEL, both Montaplast by Land-Motorsport) in the Audi took P3 from the Porsche 911 GT3 R of Timo Bernhard (38, GER) and Klaus Bachler (28, AUT, both Küs Team75 Bernhard). Filip Salaquarda (35, CZ) and Frank Stippler (44, GER, both Team ISR) completed the Top Five.