Pinturault scorches to World Cup slalom win

France's Alexis Pinturault produced a near-perfect second leg to claim a memorable victory in the men's World Cup slalom here on Saturday. The French skier, who was sixth after the first leg, scorched the second course down the testing, flood-lit Bellevarde piste in 47.33 seconds to time a combined total of 1min 36.55sec. Germany's Felix Neureuther was second at 0.50sec, with reigning World Cup overall champion Marcel Hirscher of Austria in third at 0.57. "It's just amazing," beamed Pinturault, whose previous win on the World Cup circuit came in last year's parallel slalom event in Moscow. "There was lots of snow, but the slope was really great. The conditions were perfect apart from visibility at the top." Hirscher was in pole position after the first leg, timing 48.49sec down the steep and unforgiving course, 0.23sec ahead of teammate Manfred Pranger. But Pranger slipped down the rankings after managing only a 28th best second run, and Hirscher then produced two terrible mistakes that saw him lose any chance of topping the podium here for a third time. Swedish duo Andre Myhrer and Jens Byggmark finished in fourth and fifth, the latter's result all the more remarkable for the fact he lost a pole early on in the first leg. American Ted Ligety, who has shown impressive form this season in winning two giant slaloms and finishing fourth in two super-Gs, finished out of the top 10, 1.63sec adrift of Pinturault. The current leader of the World Cup overall standings, Norwegian Aksel Lund Svindal, opted not to race the slalom, but is slated to compete in Sunday's giant slalom.