The 27-year-old, a double Olympic gold medallist at Sochi 2014, has now won five World Cup races this season, with his latest victory containing just a single penalty.

He completed the course in a time of 50min 53.9sec to beat Austria's Simon Eder into second.

Eder, who himself beat Fourcade into second in the 12.5km pursuit at the last World Cup meeting, also in Ruhpolding, was 17.5 seconds back with one penalty.

Third place went to Russia's Anton Shipulin, who also accrued one fault but was 28 seconds shy of the winner.

Ondrej Moravec of the Czech Republic managed to shoot clean, but he was not as quick on the skis and came home in fourth.

Fourcade cleared the first two shooting stages but then collected his sole penalty in the second prone phase.

He was handed a one-minute penalty but he swiftly erased this from consideration with his lightning quick effort on the skis.

The Frenchman then cleared the final stage and there was only one winner after that as he set off 17.9 seconds ahead of Shipulin.

"I really felt good on my skis and the shooting range today," said Fourcade.

"I was really sad to miss that prone shot today.

"I hate to give a gift to my rivals.

"The course was getting faster and faster in the last loop, so I was not worried about Anton in the last loop.

"I had some luck with my bib, where Anton as an earlier starter was not so lucky.

"I really like the 20km, unlike the sprint you have time to think.

"It is my favorite competition."

Fourcade now has 601 points on top of the overall standings, ahead of Norway's Tarjei Bø, second on 438.

Another Norwegian, Emil Hegle Svendsen, is third on a tally of 434.

The ongoing World Cup is the second consecutive event in Ruhpolding after the last World Cup was moved there due to a lack of snow in Oberhof, another German venue.

Action is due to continue tomorrow with the women's 15km individual.