Stephanie Gilmore has found another gear when it mattered to finish runner-up at the inaugural Surf Ranch Pro and inch closer to a seventh world surfing title.
In a four-woman final, Gilmore's combined score of 16.70 was enough to finish second behind Hawaii's Carissa Moore's 17.80 total at the man-made Californian wave site.
Six-time world champion Gilmore crucially edged out series rival Lakey Peterson (16.57) and American teenager Caroline Marks (14.77).
The Australian was staring down the barrel of finishing last in the group before notching an 8.87 on her final right-hand wave to improve to second.
"It was a stressful moment," Gilmore said.
"I just had to go out there and make a right (wave). I haven't made one all today and I didn't think it would beat the 9 (of Moore)."
Peterson couldn't respond, logging 8.20 to fall short of relegating Gilmore to third.
Banking another 7800 points, Gilmore has crept to a 6915-point lead in the standings over second-placed Peterson.
The season's final two legs are in France and Hawaii.
"It's nice to hold onto the lead," Gilmore said.
"Lakey is fighting super hard. She's a tough competitor, all of them are, but now we'll head to France and see what happens there."
Later in the eight-surfer men's final, Gabriel Medina (17.86) took another small bite out of countryman Filipe Toledo's first-place buffer with a second-straight win.
Australians Owen Wright (15.40) and Julian Wilson (15.37) settled for fifth and sixth respectively as Medina's consistency cancelled out a near-perfect, three-aerial 9.80 wave from runner-up Toledo (17.03).
"It feels good to get a little closer to Filipe," Medina said.
"Filipe is so dangerous, he's probably the best at the Surf Ranch, so it's special to win."
Toledo (49,785 points) has a handy lead on Medina (45,685), with the Brazilian duo both well clear of third-placed Wilson (37,125) and fifth-placed Wright (29,485) heading into next month's event in France.
