France's Alexis Pinturault secured his fourth consecutive World Cup giant slalom victory at Kranjska Gora in Slovenia on Friday (4th March).

The first of two World Cup giant slaloms at Kranjska Gora in Slovenia took place on Friday, this one to replace one cancelled earlier in the season at Garmisch-Partenkirchen.

Alexis Pinturault was seeking his fourth consecutive World Cup giant slalom victory and the Frenchman was 0.34 seconds clear after the first run.

Giant slalom standings leader Marcel Hirscher was only seventh after the first run, but he produced a blistering second run to go into first place.

He looked set to lose that lead to Felix Neureuther, third after the first run, but the German crashed out much to his disappointment.

That guaranteed Hirscher a place on the podium but he was relegated to second by Austrian team-mate Philipp Schoerghofer.

That left Pinturault and he set the second quickest time on the second run - with only Hirscher going faster - to take victory by 0.47 seconds.

With two races remaining, Pinturault is now 91 points behind Hirscher who increased his World Cup overall lead over Henrik Kristoffersen to 293 points with the Norwegian finishing fourth on the day.

Saturday sees the second giant slalom at Kranjska Gora with Pinturault going for five in a row.