Lochner now boasts three four-man victories in his debut World Cup season, while the 2016 junior world champion having also prevailed in yesterday’s two-man competition.

The German’s latest success came with Matthias Kagerhuber, Joshua Bluhm and Christian Rasp also in the bobsleigh as they began the competition with a track record 48.45sec.

Their fellow German Manuel Machata had been the pilot for the previous time of 48.65, which was posted to win the 2011 World Championships.

Lochner would make sure of World Cup victory, as his crew clocked the fastest second run time of 48.72 to end in 1:37.17 overall.

“Unbelievable, my first season in the World Cup and the best season of my life,” said Lochner.

“Our starting times were not great; I’m still not 100 per cent fit.

“We’ll do even better at the World Championships in three weeks’ time.”

Last year’s World Championship runner-up Nico Walther will hope to rival Lochner next month, but his crew were made to settle for second today.

The German would end 0.25sec adrift of the winner, alongside Kevin Kuske, Kevin Korona and Eric Franke.

Alexey Stulnev of Russia completed the podium with his team of Ilvir Huzin, Maxim Belugin and Roman Koshelev as they ended in 1:37.49.

The overall World Cup standings are led by Russia’s Alexander Kasjanov, who has a total of 1,123 points, despite ending sixth today.

Lochner has moved up to second place on 1,067 and the German will now emerge as one of the favourites the world title.

Königssee was named as the host of the World Championships last month, after the IBSF stripped the event from Sochi because of the Russian doping crisis.

The track is scheduled to play host from February 13 to 26, the same time-frame initially proposed for the event in the 2014 Winter Olympic host.