The polesitting trio’s #7 GR010 HYBRID Le Mans Hypercar beat the sister crew of Sebastien Buemi, Ryo Hirakawa and Brendon Hartley - that had started from the back of the grid after the latter’s qualifying crash - by 16.637s.
The #8 car had pulled what appeared to be a decisive advantage with the assistance of two full course yellow interventions during the middle phase of the race, before two safety cars required following accidents for their Hypercar rivals brought the #7 car into play.
Kobayashi pulled a small gap on Hartley at the final restart, after Antonio Fuoco crashed the #50 Ferrari 499P LMH on cold tyres exiting the pits, before making his final stop on lap 126.
Hartley went two laps later before making his own final stop and initially led up the hill to Raidillon, but Kobayashi closed rapidly as the Kiwi gingerly brought his new left-side tyres up to temperature.
Such was Kobayashi’s momentum that he had to jink to the right and passed Hartley with all four wheels off the road to avoid a collision. The pass was investigated by the stewards, who in the dying moments handed Kobayashi a five-second penalty to be served at his next pitstop.
It was not enough to cost him the win, such was the margin that the Japanese had pulled on Hartley in the closing laps.
The podium was completed by the charging #51 Ferrari of James Calado, Antonio Giovinazzi and Alessandro Pier Guidi, as Calado passed the #5 Porsche 963 LMDh that Fred Makowiecki shared with Michael Christensen and Dane Cameron into Les Combes on the final lap.
WRT claimed victory in the LMP2 class with its #41 ORECA-Gibson 07 driven by Louis Deletraz, Robert Kubica and Rui Andrade.
Source: Autosport