Larsson benefits from bust

Larsson won on the challenging Gran Risa course in a combined time of one minute and 44.51 seconds.

American Olympic combined champion Ted Ligety claimed second at 0.19 seconds off pace and Olympic combined silver medallist Ivica Kostelic finished a further 0.29 seconds behind him in third.

Larsson, Ligety and Kostelic all benefited from major mistakes from the top-three racers after the first run, Tissot, Raich, and Kalle Palander.

On the final run of the day France's Tissot straddled a gate before flipping backwards and crashing into the snow.

The Frenchman remained on his back in the snow for several minutes, apparently dazed from the disappointment at missing out on his first-ever World Cup win.

The Olympic and World Cup champion Raich, meanwhile, was disqualified after he also committed a straddle on his second run before crossing the line well off pace.

Palander, the winner of Sunday's giant slalom, made a less egregious error with a minor slip midway through his second run, which nonetheless bumped him into fifth place.

The 27-year-old Larsson, who had already finished second at the World Cup opener at Levi last month, earns his second-career World Cup victory.

The Swede also won the slalom at the World Cup finals in March on home snow at Are, the site of next year's world championships.

Larsson, who had failed to finish his previous three races, moves to the top of the World Cup standings in the discipline.

He said he was proud to be heading the standings, treading in the footsteps of his celebrated slalom specialist compatriot Ingemar Stenmark who won 86 World Cup races in the 1970s and early 1980s.

"The slalom was not too demanding, It was quite flat so you really had to push but that's maybe why I liked it, because many slopes are like that in Sweden," Larsson said.

The Swede added that after the first leg he knew he stood a chance of reaching the podium because the snow in the Dolomite resort, where rain and sleet had fallen earlier in the day, had been bound to deteriorate for the later skiers.

Momentum, he said was with the Swedish team now, after the win for Andre Myhrer in Beaver Creek earlier this month.

The overall rankings remained unchanged with Aksel Lund Svindal at number one in front of Switzerland's Didier Cuche and American Bode Miller.

Miller crashed out of the first run in poor weather conditions, but claimed Alta Badia's 25,000 euro prize for the best overall weekend thanks to his victory in the super-G and second-place in the giant slalom.