American Vonn avenged a disappointing 23rd place in Saturday’s downhill with her fifth victory of the season, the second in a Super-G.
The most successful woman skier of all time clocked 1:23.55 to leave Austrian Anna Fenninger, the discipline’s Olympic champion, 0.24 adrift.
Third-placed Nicole Hosp of Austria finished more than a second off the pace, 1.10 behind.
“I’m so happy to celebrate my 64th victory. It was not an easy race, as we saw with so many girls going out. There were lots of bumps. I had to ski aggressive and tactical at the same time,” Vonn said. “I was at my limits just like yesterday only this time it paid off. I was lucky,” she added.
Her path to victory was partly eased by the fact that three of her most dangerous rivals at the start failed to complete the run, held in tough wind and visibility conditions.
Swiss Lara Gut dominated Saturday’s downhill but finished the Super-G in the safety nets after crashing mid-course.
World Cup leader Tina Maze of Slovenia and Liechtenstein’s Tina Weirather missed gates as they looked in contention for podium places.
Maze still leads the overall standings with a 184-point lead over big globe holder Fenninger with Vonn third, 339 points behind.
Vonn will have little time to rest on her laurels as the women’s programme at the world championships starts with the speed events with the Super-G on Tuesday and the downhill on Friday.
In Kitzbuehel, local favourite Marcel Hirscher was denied victory by Sweden’s Matthias Hargin, who won the day’s slalom in 1:43.10 for his maiden World Cup victory at 29.
Hirscher was second, 0.49 adrift, with slalom World Cup leader Felix Neureuther a further 0.14 off the pace in third. “I must admit I was really nervous. It’s always stressful to ski in Austria and this is not an ideal course for me,” said Hirscher, who still extended his overall World Cup lead to 162 points over Norway’s Kjetil Jansrud, winner of Saturday’s Hahnenkamm downhill.
(Writing by Francois Thomazeau; editing by Justin Palmer)
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