Hannes Reichelt is poised to challenge downhill leader Kjetil Jansrud at the FIS World Cup meet in Kvitfjell on Saturday.
Reichelt has won two downhill events this season to tally 385 points, within one good result of Norwegian Jansrud (469) with two events remaining.
The Austrian has been on the podium in the past two downhill meets, winning in Garmisch-Partenkirchen and placing third in Saalbach - both in February.
Common to both those podiums was that they were populated only by Austrians, with Jansrud - who won the event prior in Kitzbuhel in January - seeing his advantage at the top cut.
Reichelt's compatriot Matthias Mayer won in Saalbach and was third in Germany, to move fourth in the downhill standings on 356 points - just one point behind third-placed Dominik Paris.
But it is Reichelt who is in prime position to test Jansrud for the crystal globe, especially after impressing in training on Thursday.
Reichelt was the only skier to break the one-minute, 51-second mark as he clocked a time of 1:50.57.
Jansrud (1:51.75) was seventh quickest on his home slopes, while Paris (1:52.47) and Mayer (1:54.03) were significantly slower in their warm-up runs.