Lindsey Vonn finally lost her lead in the World Cup downhill standings on Saturday when Laura Pirovano won by just 0.01 seconds on back-to-back days in Val di Fassa, in her native Italy.

Vonn was the standout downhill racer through January, having not finished off the podium in any World Cup downhill in this campaign.

But her horrific crash at the Olympics last month, which resulted in a complex leg break requiring multiple surgeries, ended her season and left her too few World Cup points in hand with four races left in her best event.

The 41-year-old American was pursuing a remarkable ninth World Cup downhill title.

Pirovano is now the surprise standings leader after a stunning and career-defining weekend on home snow in the Dolomites, winning by one-hundredth of a second in both races.

The 28-year-old Italian had never finished on the podium in 124 career World Cup races — until her win on Friday, when she edged Germany’s Emma Aicher into second place, with Olympic and world downhill champion Breezy Johnson third, 0.29 seconds back.

Pirovano followed up on Saturday by scraping inside Cornelia Huetter’s time.

Minutes later, the 2022 Olympic downhill champion Corinne Suter raced into third, 0.05 outside Pirovano’s time having led for most of her run and touched close to 133 kph (83 mph).

They pushed the early leader Johnson down to fourth, trailing Pirovano by 0.64.

Pirovano’s 100 race points lifted her atop the downhill standings, 36 ahead of Vonn. Aicher, a double Olympic silver medallist last month, is in second place with one race left, on March 21 at Kvitfjell, Norway.

Aicher placed outside the top 10 on Saturday, benefiting Pirovano in the downhill standings, and that unexpected result was also positive news for Mikaela Shiffrin.

The American’s lead in the overall World Cup standings has been cut back because she no longer races in downhill, but she remains 117 points ahead of the 22-year-old German with the potential to extend that if she participates in a super-G scheduled for Sunday.

Shiffrin, who broke a lengthy Olympic drought with a stunning slalom gold in her final race in Milano-Cortina, is chasing a sixth career overall title, and her first for three years.

Additional reporting by AP