Dominik Paris claimed a home victory at the Val Gardena World Cup downhill on Saturday, his first ever win at the famous Saslong piste in the Italian Dolomites.

Former world champion in the super-G, Paris sped to the finish line in one minute, 59.84 seconds, 0.44sec ahead of Aleksander Aamodt Kilde.

Paris, 34, was the only racer to clock a time under two minutes on the 3.5km course as the speed specialist won his first race since March last year.

He also became the first Italian man to win the downhill at Val Gardena since Kristian Ghedina in 2001.

"It's a lot. I always seem to make mistakes on this track," said Paris.

"Today I tried to ski really smooth and keep pushing and going, but not too much, and it was a really, really good run from me. It's a really great feeling."

The 22nd World Cup win of his career pushed Paris to within 36 points of joint leaders Kilde and Bryce Bennett in the downhill standings.

American Bennett is on 160 points alongside Kilde after taking third place, 0.60sec off the pace.

It was Bennett's second podium finish in Val Gardena after winning the opening downhill race of the season on Friday.

Reigning World Cup champion Marco Odermatt stays top of the overall standings on 256 points after finishing seventh on Saturday.

Odermatt was just 0.03sec ahead of his closest challenger for the Crystal Globe Marco Schwarz, the Austrian 22 points behind his Swiss rival.

The men's season continues in Italy on Sunday and Monday with giant slaloms at Alta Badia, while Paris eyes the downhill and super-G events at Bormio just before Christmas.

Paris has won at least one race at Bormio in four of the last five seasons and all his World Cup victories have come in those two disciplines.