Mikaela Shiffrin produced a flying first run to take a firm grip on the World Cup giant slalom event in Semmering, Austria on Tuesday.
The 27-year-old American, who is looking for her 78th World Cup victory, clocked a time of one minute and 5.49 seconds, 0.72 seconds quicker than Slovakian Petra Vlhova with French skier Tessa Worley just 0.01 second further back.
Olympic champion Sara Hector was sixth fastest, 0.96 seconds behind Shiffrin.
Shiffrin, the overall World Cup leader, is approaching the women's record of 82 World Cup victories set by Lindsey Vonn, who retired in 2019, and is also on track for the 86 World Cup victories of Swedish great Ingemar Stenmark.
The second run begins at 12pm GMT.
