The quartet of Alexey Chervotkin, Alexander Bolshunov, Denis Spitsov and Sergey Ustiugov secured a convincing victory after 1 hour 54min 50.7sec at the Zhangjiakou National Cross-Country Skiing Centre.

Runners-up Norway were more than a minute behind.

It marked the ROC's seventh overall medal in the sport at the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics.

Chervotkin exploded out of the gate to give his team a substantial 23.5sec lead over Germany, who were second at the time.

The ROC team never looked back and had an advantage of almost a minute by the halfway mark.

Bolshunov, Chervotkin and Spitsov were all part of the Olympic Athletes from Russia team at Pyeongchang 2018 that won silver in the event, while Ustiugov's last team appearance at the Games was at Sochi 2014.

Chervotkin was experiencing his best season in the Cross-Country World Cup and had podiumed twice, with a silver and bronze finish in Rukatunturi and Val di Fiemme, respectively.

Bolshunov went into the race in fine form, having won gold in the individual 30km skiathlon.

The 25-year-old won four medals in the last Winter Olympics, with silvers in the 50km classical, team sprint freestyle and 4x10km relay as well as a bronze in the men's sprint classical.

Twice the overall World Cup champion, Bolshunov is the star of Russian cross-country skiing.

Spitsov followed behind Bolshunov in Beijing to win the 30km skiathlon silver, to add to three second-place finishes at Pyeongchang 2018.

Ustiugov is a former skiathlon and team sprint world champion with more than a dozen World Cup victories to his name, as well as a Tour de Ski title.