Friedrich leads the four-man charge

Francesco Friedrich’s stranglehold on the bobsleigh World Cup season continued after maintaining his perfect four-man record with victory in Koenigssee.

The German leads the standings in the two-man, four-man and combined rankings this term and shows no signs of slowing down after recording yet another victory on home ice.

Once again combining with Thorsten Margis, Martin Grothkopp and Alexander Schuller – as he did last time out in St Moritz – Friedrich stopped the clock in 1:37.45 to go three from three in this four-man campaign.

There was a familiar feeling to second place as well with Benjamin Maier bagging back-to-back silvers alongside Danut Moldovan, Markus Sammer and Sascha Stepan.

The Austrian team finished 0.39 seconds off the pace with Germany also rounding out the podium in the shape of Johannes Lochner, Christopher Weber, Florian Bauer and Christian Rasp.

Great Britain may have missed out on the top three but their opening race of the season boasted plenty of positives with a seventh-place finish in Germany.

Bruce Tasker temporarily came out of retirement to help the British bob take to the ice, with he, Brad Hall, Taylor Lawrence and Greg Cackett finishing within a hundredth of a second from the top six.

Just one event of the four-man season remains with the World Cup programme heading back to Innsbruck-Igls next weekend.

Sportsbeat 2021