Slovenia's Tina Maze beat favourite Anja Paerson to win the second World Cup giant slalom of her career on Wednesday.

Maze overturned a deficit of 0.33 seconds from the first leg to defeat last season's champion Paerson by 0.12 seconds. Spain's Maria Jose Rienda Contreras was third, a further 0.62 seconds back.

Finland's Tanja Poutiainen, racing despite a slight back problem, held on to the overall World Cup lead with fifth place but Swede Paerson closed the gap to just 13 points.

Former champion Janica Kostelic was lying third after the first leg on the Engiadina course but crashed out of the second run after setting the fastest split time. The Croatian, who has been suffering from gastric flu, escaped serious injury.