Lochner and his crew of Florian Bauer, Christopher Weber and Christian Rasp clocked 1min 50.44sec to clinch victory in the World Cup race, which doubled as the European Championship in the four-man discipline.

The German team completed their two runs a mere 0.02sec quicker than Friedrich, the reigning Olympic, world and World Cup champion.

Friedrich - who was hoping to wrestle the continental crown back from his team mate and closest rival - Candy Bauer, Alexander Schüller and Thorsten Margis were forced to settle for silver after finishing in 1:50.56.

Germany swept the European Championship podium as Nico Walther with Paul Krenz, Kevin Korona and Eric Franke took bronze in 1:50.76.

The German crew were also third in the World Cup event.

Friedrich moved to the top of the four-man World Cup standings despite failing to capture the European title and occupies first place on 827 points.

Justin Kripps of Canada, sixth today, is 17 points adrift in second place.

World Championships runner-up Stephanie Schneider, racing with brake athlete Kira Lipperheide for the first time, won the two-woman bobsleigh race in 1:55.46.

Schneider and Lipperheide were 0.04 ahead of Olympic champion Mariama Jamanka and her new brakewoman, Annika Drazek.

Youth Olympic champion and her brake athlete Deborah Levi finished third on their World Cup debut as they beat Kaillie Humphries, representing the United States after switching allegiance from Canada.

The event continues tomorrow with the men's and women's skeleton races.