The double Olympic medallist has won the slalom crystal globe on three occasions during his career and is in the driving seat for a fourth.

He also sits third in the overall FIS Alpine Ski World Cup standings behind Switzerland's Marco Odermatt and his compatriot Aleksander Aamodt Kilde, who both opted to miss the race in Germany.

Kristoffersen took a commanding lead on leg one with a gap of 0.71 seconds to home favourite Linus Straßer, clocking a time of 52.84sec.

Olympic champion Clément Noël from France sat third, followed by Manuel Feller of Austria and Switzerland's Daniel Yule.

Norwegian candidates Lucas Braathen, winner of the opening slalom race of the season in Val-d'Isère, and Atle Lie McGrath failed to finish their first runs, while their team-mate Sebastian Foss-Solevåg skied out in run two having finished the first one in eighth place.

With good snow, some of the earlier runners moved up the standings including Croatia's Filip Zubčić from 27th to 15th and Norwegian Alexander Steen Olsen from 30th to 10th, but the star of the early skiers was Italy's Stefano Gross who posted the quickest second effort to propel himself from 26th to fifth - his best result in over three years.

Compatriot Tommasso Sala slotted in behind him, with the pair sitting one-and-two until the top five took to the slopes.

Yule set a new marker of 1min 50.08sec, which was then bettered by Feller with 1:49.59.

Noël slotted between them with a time of 1:49.83.

Heartache came for Straßer, who failed to finish his second run, meaning Kristoffersen claimed his 29th victory barring any mistakes.

The Norwegian crossed the line with a combined time of 1:48.37, 1.22sec in front of Feller and 1.46 ahead of Noël, who completed the podium.

Swiss Alpine village Adelboden is to host the next leg of the World Cup, with giant slalom and slalom races on Saturday (January 7) and Sunday (January 8).