FA: Perera claims first Atlantic pole.

After knocking on the door over the past few weeks, French rookie Franck Perera picked up his first career Champ Car Atlantic pole position in final qualifying for Sunday's race at Mont-Tremblant.

Despite a light rain shower at the beginning of the session, ensuing sunshine and a slightly heavier shower that effectively ended the session early meant that conditions were tricky for the 24-car field, but Perera timed his best lap of 1min 26.426secs just right to put the Condor Motorsports entry into top spot.

The GP2 refugee eclipsed a previous career-best second, from Long Beach, and will line up in a top three spot for the fifth time in seven races this season. The Frenchman also earned a championship point, moving him to within five points of Robert Wickens in the race for rookie of the year honours.

"I'm really happy because I lost a lot of pole positions this year," Perera admitted, "Rafa [Matos] is a tough guy and, for sure, it was difficult for me, but this weekend is really great. The team has done a great job and I really like the track. It's more of a European style, so for me it's great. It's long and has fast corners, so it's all about driving fast in the car.

"Yesterday, we had some problems in qualifying with the traffic and some problems with the gears, but since this morning, we showed that our car is really quick. I dominated all day, so that's really good. I really want to thank my team and my sponsor, Everflux, for giving me the shot to drive in America this year."

Perera will be joined on the front row by points leader Matos, despite the Brazilian mustering only the fourth quickest time in final qualifying. Although his provisional pole-winning performance from Friday ensures Matos' fifth front row start and gives him a decent chance of a fifth victory of the season, the points leader was not happy.

"I was quite disappointed this session, not only with my car, but with some drivers that don't have any respect," Matos fumed, "What can I do? You cannot control the other drivers. My car felt pretty good in the beginning of the session, and we were expecting to drop the times. We put on stickers and I was coming on a fairly good lap, maybe not the quickest that I could have done, but I was blocked. That was it. The times that I had were top five and we're P4."

Starting third, but turning the second fastest time of final qualifying, was Italian rookie Giacomo Ricci, who racked up his career best qualifying performance.

"I'm really happy about my position," the Conquest driver said, "It's the first time for me in the top three, so it's really, really good. The big congratulations go to my team though, as everybody worked really hard. After Cleveland, we have found a better set-up for the car and, right now, I'm much more confident with the team and everybody."

Wickens wound up third quickest on the day, but will start fourth as he enters Sunday's race looking for his sixth top-five result of the season and limit the gains being made by his rookie rivals.

"It definitely means a lot to be starting in the top five in the first Canadian race of the season," the Red Bull Forsythe driver noted, "but my qualifying went pretty average to be honest. The team gave me a good car at the start and I was able to go P1, but I was hoping it would rain more so my time would stay. Unfortunately it kept getting drier and drier.

"We still had pretty good pace, but put on new tyres a little bit too late. By that time, it had started raining again, so I didn't even improve on my lap with new tyres. I think it could be better, but I think starting fourth isn't so bad."

Matos' Sierra Sierra Enterprises team-mate James Hinchcliffe completed the top five, but the effort means that Sunday's race will be just the second time in seven races this season that the Canadian will not start from the front row.

Swiss rookie Simona de Silvestro - the only woman in the Champ Car Atlantic Championship this season - qualified a career-best sixth, ahead of local favourite Kevin Lacroix, who remained seventh.