Maillet brought home the win for the French team, which also included Marie Dorin Habert, Anais Bescond and Simon Desthieux, in a time of 1 hour 11min 34.5sec.

Germany, comprised of Nadine Horchler, Maren Hammerschmidt, Benedikt Doll and Arnd Peiffer, took silver as they were 11 seconds adrift of the winning pace.

Iryna Varvynets, Olga Abramova, Sergey Semenov and Dmytro Pidruchnyi of Ukraine were the recipients of the bronze medal.

The event brought the second to last World Cup competition to a close, with several of the leading names, including overall World Cup winners Martin Fourcade and Laura Dahlmeier, absent from the respective French and German teams.

The Austrian duo of Lisa Hauser and Simon Eder claimed an impressive triumph in the single mixed relay race, involving one man and one woman, earlier on in the day.

Hauser and Eder completed the course in a time of 31:35.1, with five spare rounds.

American duo Susan Dunklee and Lowell Bailey, who both made history with medals at last month's World Championships in Hochfilzen, crossed the line 32.8 seconds adrift to earn silver.

Bronze went the way of Germany's Roman Rees and Dahlmeier.

"Already in Östersund, Simon and I were successful," said Hauser after her first-ever World Cup victory.

"For me it’s really amazing to be first. 

"I like to be with Simon on the podium. 

"I enjoyed every second of the flower ceremony."

The IBU World Cup season concludes in Oslo next weekend, with action beginning on Friday (March 17).