Gabriele Tarquini will start from pole position in the World Touring Car Championship meeting in Oschersleben.

Croatian independent driver Marin Colak claimed a shock second spot on the grid, with Rickard Rydell of SEAT third.

Indeed, the heavy rain helped make it a successful afternoon for the more unheralded drivers, with the Lada of Jaap van Lagen fourth quickest and another independent Tom Coronel seventh.

Tarquini topped the timesheets with a fastest lap of one minute 39.866seconds around the 3.696 kilometre circuit, with Colak clocking 1min 41.692secs.

SEAT driver Tarquini's championship rivals dealt less well with the downpour which hit shortly after the start of the first qualifying session.

Championship leader Yvan Muller (SEAT) will start all the way back in 17th after failing to make it to Q2, while BMW's Augusto Farfus, fastest in both free practice sessions this morning and a winner in Oschersleben twice in the last two years, will start from ninth place.

Defending champion Muller leads the overall standings by five points from Tarquini, with Farfus a point further back.

Britain's triple world champion Andy Priaulx, who picked up 10 points at the last meeting at Brands Hatch, also found the going tough and will start from 15th.

The BMW driver, who sits seventh in the championship standings, said: "I can't put my finger on one single problem. The car was not handling well, but I just missed the window of opportunity to get a good lap for the top 10, and also yellow flags played their part. However, the first corner here is pretty tricky on lap one, so I may be in a good position after all."

Nicola Larini and Britain's Robert Huff (both Chevrolet) will start from fifth and sixth respectively.

Jorg Mueller was the highest placed of the BMWs in eighth, with team-mate Alex Zanardi 10th.