The Men's Alpine Skiing World Cup had the second giant slalom of the weekend on Sunday in Hinterstoder.
Pinturault dominates the first run
The winner of Friday's giant slalom in Hinterstoder, Alexis Pinturault of France had a dominant first run, beating the second-placed Felix Neureuther of Germany by 0.47 seconds. The overall World Cup second-placed Henrik Kristoffersen was third, 0.55 seconds from lead, followed by the overall World Cup leader Marcel Hirscher in fourth place, just 0.01 seconds behind Kristoffersen.
Two more skiers finished the first run within a second from lead. Stefan Luitz of Germany was in fifth place, 0.77 seconds from lead, and Thomas Fanara of France in sixth place, 0.82 seconds behind.
Kilde, Haugen, and Janka progress on the second run
The winner of Saturday's super-G in Hinterstoder, Aleksander Aamodt Kilde made only his season's third start in giant slalom on Sunday. Although he is the 2013 junior World Champion in giant slalom, Kilde has profiled himself as a speed specialist on the World Cup tour and he narrowly made the second run of the race by finishing 29th on the first run. Yet being the second skier on the second-run course helped him to set a time that ended up being third-quickest of the second run and he gained 13 positions to finish the race in 16th place.
Another Norwegian, Leif Kristian Haugen also made big progress on the second run. 20th after the first run, he set the fifth-quickest second run and progressed eight positions to finish in 12th.
After having to sit out the previous giant slalom races of the season due to back problems, Carlo Janka made his GS comeback in Hinterstoder on Friday when he finished in 22nd place. Sunday's race was a lot more successful for the Swiss; after finishing the first run in 14th place, he set the third-quickest second run and progressed seven positions to finish in seventh.
The first man to beat Janka's lead time was Mathieu Faivre of France, only by 0.06 seconds. Thomas Fanara went into second place and pushed Janka one place further down, while Stefan Luitz went into fifth place, behind Faivre, Fanara, Janka, and then fourth-placed Florian Eisath.
Pinturault dominant, Hirscher beats Kristoffersen
Marcel Hirscher started the second run with 0.95 seconds of lead to Faivre, and claimed the lead after his run by 0.97 seconds. Hirscher's run was good enough to beat the following starter Henrik Kristoffersen by 0.12 seconds and extend the overall World Cup lead.
First run's second, Felix Neureuther had 0.09 second of advantage to Hirscher, yet only 24th-quickest second run dropped him into fifth place between Fanara and Janka.
Aiming for his third GS win in a row, Alexis Pinturault started the second run with a gap of 0.56 seconds to Marcel Hirscher. Pinturault had another impressive run to win the race with a huge gap of 1.14 seconds, setting also quickest time of the second run on the deteriorated course. Like in Friday's giant slalom, Hirscher finished second, while his overall title rival Kristoffersen followed in third place.
Hirscher in overall and giant slalom World Cup lead
With Sunday's result, giant slalom World Cup second-placed Pinturault reduced Hirscher's lead by 20 points but the gap is still 131 points with three races remaining. Henrik Kristoffersen climbed into third place, 210 points from Hirscher, while Victor Muffat-Jeandet is now in fourth place, 34 points behind Kristoffersen.
In the overall World Cup, Hirscher's lead to Kristoffersen is now 283 points. In third place is the injured Aksel Lund Svindal while the fourth-placed Kjetil Jansrud is already 497 points behind Hirscher.
The men's World Cup continues in Kranjska Gora on March 4-6 with two giant slalom and one slalom races.