From Igls, AUT
(January 18, 2026) – Hans Peter Hannighofer slid to victory in Igls, but needed to hold off a season’s best race by Mattia Variola to do so.
Hannighofer took an early lead in the first heat as the only slider under 52 seconds. Variola slid into second place, wedged in between Hannighofer and the pair of Laurin Zern and Chunjian Li who were tied for third.
The second heat saw Zern break the tie with Li to take the lead from teammate Tobias Dostthaler with only Variola and Hannighofer still to come.
Variola’s team gave him the quick start of the competition in the second heat, and Variola matched a great first drive with another great drive to slide to the lead over Zern with just Hannighofer to go.
But Hannighofer has been the class of the four-man field most of the season, and Sunday would not be any different. His team gave up .06 at the start, but by the Kreisel, Hannighofer was in the lead and pulling away on his way to victory by .18 over Variola, with Zern third.
The win was the fourth in four-man for Hannighofer, while Variola’s silver was his first medal of the season. Zern took bronze for his second medal of the year.
Dostthaler was fourth, Li fifth, and Canada’s Pat Norton sixth.
With one race to go in four-man Europe Cup action, Hans Peter Hannighofer has a 38 point lead over Maxmilian Illmann, with Laurin Zern third. David Baechler is fourth, Mattia Variola fifth, and Tobias Dostthaler sixth.
Results:
| Pos | Names | Nation | Bib | Start 1 | Start 2 | Run 1 | Run 2 | Finish |
| 1 | Hannighofer / Schenk / Steube / Kocevar | GER | 7 | 5.13 | 5.14 | 51.99 | 52.17 | 1:44.16 |
| 2 | Variola / Ragazzi / Verginer / Lambrughi | ITA | 13 | 5.09 | 5.08 | 52.13 | 52.21 | 1:44.34 |
| 3 | Zern / Hempel / Leypold / Schenk | GER | 4 | 5.15 | 5.14 | 52.14 | 52.25 | 1:44.39 |
| 4 | Dostthaler / Büthe / Klein / Maul | GER | 10 | 5.13 | 5.11 | 52.20 | 52.29 | 1:44.49 |
| 5 | Li / Jiang / Ye / Chi | CHN | 2 | 5.15 | 5.12 | 52.14 | 52.40 | 1:44.54 |
| 6 | Norton / Zanette / Eskrick-Parkinson / Ohrt | CAN | 16 | 5.22 | 5.18 | 52.37 | 52.23 | 1:44.60 |
| 7 | Illmann / Proske / Frytz / Wobeto | GER | 12 | 5.21 | 5.25 | 52.36 | 52.40 | 1:44.76 |
| 8 | Gleeson / Dixon / Williams / Hullah | GBR | 6 | 5.18 | 5.16 | 52.43 | 52.40 | 1:44.83 |
| 9 | Bindilatti / de Souza / Souza da Silva / Martins | BRA | 1 | 5.22 | 5.24 | 52.24 | 52.65 | 1:44.89 |
| 10 | Grantins / Meijers / Gulbis / Skadinš | LAT | 17 | 5.18 | 5.17 | 52.46 | 52.45 | 1:44.91 |
| 11 | Prochazka / Bures / Jindra / Petrikovic | CZE | 9 | 5.24 | 5.21 | 52.77 | 52.71 | 1:45.48 |
| 12 | Felder / Maly / Jones / Manganas | SUI | 14 | 5.34 | 5.29 | 52.85 | 52.71 | 1:45.56 |
| 13 | Dos Santos Ferreira / da Silva / Vianna Jeronimo / Bacca Goncalves | BRA | 18 | 5.32 | 5.31 | 53.15 | 53.09 | 1:46.24 |
| 14 | Turea / Dumitrache / Calancea / Dinca | ROU | 8 | 5.45 | 5.39 | 53.22 | 53.03 | 1:46.25 |
| 15 | Baechler / Bosse / Alais / Laporal | FRA | 5 | 5.32 | 5.33 | 53.12 | 53.17 | 1:46.29 |
| 16 | Beierl / Wiener / Förster / Glaboniat | AUT | 20 | 5.29 | 5.28 | 53.23 | 53.18 | 1:46.41 |
| 17 | Silic / Kasik / Mezulic / Zelic | CRO | 3 | 5.44 | 5.47 | 53.39 | 53.40 | 1:46.79 |
| 18 | Renggli / Gretler / Brunner / Limacher | SUI | 19 | 5.39 | 5.45 | 53.51 | 53.59 | 1:47.10 |
| 19 | Pals / Bante / Janssens / Van Harmelen | NED | 21 | 5.47 | 5.45 | 54.03 | 53.88 | 1:47.91 |
| 20 | Pelletier / Bonnefond / Gerente Paquet / Adoui | FRA | 23 | 5.52 | 5.57 | 54.07 | 54.02 | 1:48.09 |
| 21 | Lourimi / Fojuth / Ujma / Sosna | POL | 22 | 5.75 | 54.14 | |||
| 22 | Sletten / Hansen / Lindberg / Grothe | NOR | 11 | 5.81 | 54.55 | |||
| DNS | Vogt / Haas / Aeberhard / Ndiaye | SUI | 15 | DNS |