Auer held a dominant lead in the early stages, his 1m37.564s making for a six-tenth gap over Mercedes teammate Gary Paffett.

However, the Audi cars had delayed their opening runs - and soon enough it was Nico Muller edging Auer by 0.08s, with Rene Rast and Jamie Green slotting into third and fourth.

After a mid-session lull, the field only rejoined in the dying stages with improvements, mainly from Mercedes, coming in only during the final minute.

Di Resta lowered Muller's benchmark by a tenth with a 1m37.349s, but Auer was on course to beat the Scotsman as he set a fastest first sector.

However the Austrian's lap was ruined when he ran wide at Turn 9 and he failed to improve.

With nobody else challenging for pole, di Resta ended up on top ahead of Muller and Auer.

Rast and Green couldn't improve in the end, and while Rast held on to fourth, the latter dropped behind Mercedes duo Edoardo Mortara and Daniel Juncadella.

BMW had a low-key session with Augusto Farfus leading the manufacturer's efforts in eighth, more than half a second off the pace.

Gary Paffett took ninth but still fared better than his championship rival and points leader Timo Glock, who was only 16th.

The top 10 was completed by BMW's Bruno Spengler.

Qualifying results