In the 2012 season Kostelić had a better start than the year before, winning two slaloms in December. His next victories were the super combined and the slalom at Wengen, and the following weekend he won also the classical combined of the Hahnenkamm races (downhill and slalom) in Kitzbühel, where he took the overall lead for the first time that season. However, in February 2012 he sustained an injury and missed 11 races, including two classic slaloms and one parallel, in Stockholm. In the meantime, Marcel Hirscher took the lead in the overall standings and would go on to claim his first overall title. Kostelić returned to action in Schladming at the end of the season, and competed only in slalom. He finished 16th and André Myhrer took the slalom title.