A quartet also including Jean Guillaume Beatrix, Quentin Fillon Maillet and Simon Desthieux proved too strong for the rest of the field over the 7.5 kilometres course.

They ruthlessly pressed home their advantage over the second half after trailing Russia in the opening stages.

Maxim Tsvetkov and IBU rookie of the year Anton Babikov had each combined strong skiing and on-target shooting to extend a narrow lead at halfway.

But Desthieux's superb third leg opened up a 20 second lead for France as Matvey Eliseev had to perform a penalty loop after shooting errors.

Fourcade, who had never won in the Slovenian resort heading into the World Cup, then coasted home to complete a perfect weekend in a team time of 1hour 11min 56sec.

Russia, anchored by Anton Shipulin, hung on for second place 15.7 seconds behind.

Germany finished in third place 21.5 seconds behind the winners.

Ukraine were fourth with Czech Republic fifth.

"When we started the relay, we thought that winning was possible," said France's opening leg star Beatrix.

"At the same time, the competition was very tough. 

"There were many strong teams today.”