Vonn hoping change in underwear will make her faster

Veteran American ski star Lindsey Vonn is hoping that a change in underwear will help her pick up speed as she goes for the alpine skiing World Cup win record after slumping to 15th in Friday's downhill in Cortina d'Ampezzo on her return following injury. "I'm going to change my underwear and change my race suit and maybe that will be better," said Vonn, who was hampered by braces on both her knees down the Olimpia delle Tofane course where she has won a record 12 times. The 34-year-old had been out since November with a knee injury, but chose Cortina where she has had such success in the past to reboot her bid to overhaul Swedish great Ingemar Stenmark's all time record of 86 World Cup wins. But the American -- who has 82 World Cup wins since 2005 -- trailed 1.19sec behind Austria's Ramona Siebenhofer who claimed her first ever victory. Vonn did well over the sharp, steep part of the course but struggled on the more technical second part, in a race which was shortened because of heavy overnight snow. "In my career, I've only twice skied with braces, it's definitely not aerodynamic, but better than nothing. I do what I have to do," she said. As well as the knee braces Vonn also had an air bag under her ski suit. "I do as much as I can do to protect my body. I've got a mouthguard, a helmet, air bag, back protector, knee braces. I think that’s as much as really you can have without arm braces." Vonn expects to improve in another downhill scheduled for Saturday, followed by a super-G on Sunday. "I was happy in general but I really need to watch the video," she said. "I think that it will be good for me to have a better prep tonight and be ready tomorrow. "I felt good, really happy but I made a big mistake and lost my grip, otherwise I was positive, attacking, charging," said Vonn, who needs five more wins to better Stenmark's record achieved between 1975 and 1989. "It's good to get that under my belt. I had to be realistic and understand that I haven't skied in a couple of months. It's a good place to start." - 'Big emotions' - Siebenhofer had the perfect race with the course starting lower down the Olympia delle Tofane piste. It was the first win for 27-year-old Siebenhofer, after two third place finishes in Lake Louise in 2015 and Val Gardena last December. "Big emotions," said the Austrian. "Not so many girls are there on the top (of the podium) who can maybe ski faster. I was really nervous waiting for the last racer. "I had a good feeling, maybe the key was I wasn't too fast in the second training run yesterday." Slovenia's Ilka Stuhec was second at 0.40sec, to close in on World Cup downhill leader Nicole Schmidhofer who finished 12th, with Stephanie Venier of Austria third at 0.46. Overall World Cup leader Mikaela Shiffrin -- also going for a record of World Cup wins in one season -- has skipped the downhill races in Cortina to focus on Saturday's Super G. Olympic downhill champion Sofia Goggia of Italy did not compete in her home race where she won last season as she recovers from a fractured ankle, but is expected to make her return in Garmisch, Germany later this month.