Andreas Buder was the fastest down the 3.1-kilometre track at Lake Louise Mountain Resort in one minute 51.56 seconds.

It's a measure of how competitive the Austrian team is that Buder was not chosen by that country's coaches to race Saturday after he finished 22nd in Thursday's training session.

Hans Grugger was second in 1:51.65, ahead of teammates Mario Schreiber in 1:51.89, defending champion Fritz Strobl in 1:52.13 and Christoph Gruber in 1:52.50.

Erick Guay of Mont-Tremblant, Que., was the top Canadian in 18th in a time of 1:53.29.