Max Franz was denied his first top-flight win by 0.02 seconds and Super-G world champion Hannes Reichelt finished third on the Saalbach Hinterglemm course.
"I'm sorry for Max but I really fought hard for this," Mayer told reporters. "It's not been that easy for me this season.
"Of course, to be surrounded by two Austrians on the podium makes it even more beautiful."
Several crashes took place on the course, home of the 1991 world championships, which was arguably the trickiest in the men's downhill so far this season.
"It's a tough piste, sometimes brutal especially as we could hardly see a thing today," Mayer added. "You had to take chances and go for it. I myself was close to the limit."
New world champion Patrick Kueng of Switzerland finished a disappointing 12th, just ahead of Norway's downhill World Cup leader Kjetil Jansrud.
"I'm not in the top 10 and I have no excuse. I just didn't ski well," said Jansrud, who remains 158 points behind Austrian slalom specialist Marcel Hirscher in the overall standings.
"Things are getting trickier for the big globe. I missed one of my best chances today," he added.
World silver medallist Travis Ganong did not start while Norway's Aksel Lund Svindal, who returned from injury at the worlds, also shunned the Austrian weekend.
(Reporting by Manuele Lang; Writing by Francois Thomazeau; editing by Michael Hann)
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