The 31-year-old won his ninth World Cup distance race in a time of 33min 56.2sec, equalling the French record of nine wins set by Vincent Vittoz.

It ensures Manificat, the overall FIS Cross-Country World Cup distance leader, will wear the red bib when the competition is due to continue in Toblach in Italy next weekend.

"I love to compete here," he said. 

"It has been a few years since I last won here so I'm happy to be back on top.

"My season has been going well so I knew that today was possible.

"It is a hard race here and I am tired but thank you to Davos and the public out in the forest.

"Your encouragement helped very much."

Russians Sergey Ustiugov and Alexander Bolshunov took the silver and bronze medals respectively.

After the race, Bolshunov claimed his tactics had paid off.

"My goal today was to not ski too fast and stay steady in the middle of the race and speed up in the end," he said. 

"I think I did that well so I am satisfied."

In the women’s 10km event, Ingvild Flugstad Østberg of Norway continued her good record in Davos, winning in a time of 25:28.5

The victory was her third career victory in Davos and Østberg is clearly happiest at the venue.

"It feels amazing to win," she said.

"Davos is my favourite place, it’s almost the only venue I can win a World Cup.

"This is what I have been training for the whole year."

Østberg's compatriot Ragnhild Haga came second, just 5.9 seconds behind the leader, meaning she continues her strong start to the season with a third consecutive World Cup distance podium.

“It was a very close race," said Haga.

"It was exciting.

"Only two kilometres before the finish I was not sure if I make it on the podium or not.

"I’m very happy to finish second

"It's great for Ingvild to win this race".

The final spot on the podium was taken by Krista Parmakoski, of Finland, who finished just two seconds shy of the silver medal place.