The 24-year-old backed up his victory in Shanghai last year with a flawless display in the free skating, which saw him perform to Guys and Dolls.

Japan's Hanyu, the Olympic champion from Sochi 2014 and the world champion in the same year, had led proceedings after the short programme.

He was passed by Fernandez, who was the best of the rest after the opening action, scored 216.41 points with his free skate to surpass his personal best by 15 points.

It gave him a total of 314.93 poits overall, with Hanyu only managing 184.61 today for a combined score of 295.17 and the silver medal.

The Spaniard, a four-time European champion, reeled off a quad toe, a quad Salchow-triple toe combination, another quad Salchow and two triple Axels in his dominant routine.

He also landed four more triples and displayed difficult spins and footwork throughout.

"It was the last programme of the season, I didn’t think about how important it was for me to win or anything, I just kept going from jump to jump," he said.

"Before skating, I knew that I had a chance to win, but that I have to do a clean program, and I did."

The bronze went to China's Jin Boyang who climbed up from fifth after the short routines to score 270.99 points.

Canada's double Olympic silver medallist Patrick Chan, in bronze medal position after day one, fell away during the free skate and finished fifth on 266.75 points.

Elsewhere, the pairs competition began with China's Wenjing Sui and Cong Han leading the way after the short programme by scoring 80.85 points.

Their Spanish themed routine was highlighted by a set of side by side triple toes, a high triple twist and throw triple flip.

Canada’s Meagan Duhamel and Eric Radford are second on 78.18 points and Russians Tatiana Volosozhar and Maxim Trankov are third on 77.13.

The pairs and ladies free skating are due conclude the Championships tomorrow.