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Nico Hulkenberg grabbed pole position for the German GP2 at the Nurburgring with a strong drive in changeable conditions.

The home favourite took top spot by less than a tenth of second ahead of Roldan Rodriguez and Lucas di Grassi.

The German's best lap of 1:38.161 came after a session-long battle with his rivals for the top spot when he found a clear track with just five minutes remaining to edge his way in front.

With rain spotting the track as the session opened all of the drivers were immediately out to clock a banker lap but with the weather immediately easing everyone stayed out as long as they could on their first set of tyres to see what they could claim.

Luca Filippi, Javier Villa, di Grassi and Hulkenberg swapped the top spot between them in the opening minutes, but with di Grassi on top as they returned for fresh rubber.

Rodriguez was the first man back on track and was soon pushing hard: a few minutes later he was on top of the timesheets but Hulkenberg was on the attack, claiming the top spot as Filippi, who was also on a hot lap, went too fast into the chicane and lost the rear of his car, spinning and stopping in the middle of the island and prompting yellow flags in the process.

With the difference at the front being just 0.089 the Hulkenberg pushed for more on the final clear lap, but just missed out on improving his time.

It was enough, however, with the top three followed by Pastor Maldonado, Villa, Andreas Zuber, Vitaly Petrov and Diego Nunes.

Eurosport