The Japanese driver’s 3m14.791s flyer came on his first lap out of the pits after a red flag period, helped by the ex-Formula 1 star encountering zero traffic.

It puts the #7 TS050 Hybrid he shares with Mike Conway and Stephane Sarrazin on provisional pole by a full 2.468s from the #1 Porsche, and was 2.096s up on the 2015 lap record of Neel Jani on the current configuration of the Circuit de la Sarthe.

Conway had already beaten Kobayashi’s Wednesday benchmark on his first run, producing a 3m18.651s – which stood as the fastest time when the session was stopped after 17 minutes due to a crash for Erik Maris’s #33 Ligier at the first Mulsanne chicane.

It took around 50 minutes for the session to resume after lengthy barrier repairs, shortly after which Kobayashi posted his 3m14s tour at an average speed of 251.9 km/h.

Jani’s 3m17.259s put the #1 Porsche nearly 2.5 seconds in arrears of the leading Toyota, while a 3m18.067s for Timo Bernhard in the sister #2 919 Hybrid was enough for third.

The #8 Toyota failed to turn a timed lap in second qualifying, Sebastien Buemi forced to crawl back to the pits after stopping early in the session with an oil supply issue.

Toyota changed the car’s engine as a precaution, and Buemi was able to return to the track just before the session was red-flagged for a second time with 10 minutes to go after a crash for Timothe Buret in the #23 Ligier at the Porsche Curves.

The #8 crew remains fourth in the provisional classification on the strength of its Wednesday time.

Fifth was the #9 Toyota thanks to a 3m19.889s lap from Le Mans rookie Yuji Kunimoto, which put the Japanese driver five seconds behind compatriot Kobayashi.

ByKolles was seventh overall behind the best of the LMP2 cars, with Dominik Kraihamer setting the #4 ENSO CLM’s best time, a 3m26.026s.

Petrov takes top LMP2 spot for Manor

Former Renault F1 driver Vitaly Petrov earned the #25 Manor Oreca provisional pole position in the LMP2 class with a lap of 3m25.549s.

The #28 TDS Oreca of Matthieu Vaxiviere started the session on top, having set the pace on Wednesday night, but early in the session Thomas Laurent put the #38 Jackie Chan DC Racing car fastest with a lap of 3m26.776s.

That was during the brief blast of running before the red flag, but soon after the track re-opened Petrov put in his time to secure top spot – outpacing the LMP1 ByKolles in the process with the fastest-ever LMP2 lap at Le Mans.

The #38 Oreca held onto second place, with the #24 Manor Oreca of Jean-Eric Vergne also improving on Wednesday's time to take third shortly after the restart.

Eighth overnight, the #13 Rebellion Oreca jumped to fourth with Mathias Beche at the wheel, ahead of the sister #31 car that Bruno Senna improved in shortly before the session was brought to a premature close.

The #37 Jackie Chan DC Racing Oreca ended up sixth thanks to Alex Brundle following an overnight engine change, a result of the oil pressure problem that curtailed its running on Wednesday night.

Seventh was the #26 G-Drive car, with Roman Rusinov at the wheel, followed by the #36 Signatech Alpine of Gustavo Menezes.

Vaxiviere was at the wheel of the #28 TDS Oreca when the session was stopped for the final time, but did not have the chance to improve and ended up shuffled down to 11th.

The best non-Oreca was the #48 Villorba Corse Dallara in 13th, one place up on the best-placed Ligier, the #45 Algarve Pro Racing entry.

Le Mans rookie and ex-Ferrari F1 ace Rubens Barrichello was 19th in the #29 Racing Team Nederland Dallara.

Aston stays on top in GTE

Only two GTE Pro cars beat Marco Sorensen’s fastest lap in the #95 AMR Aston Martin from Wednesday, and the fastest of them was the sister #97 car shared by Darren Turner, Jonny Adam and Daniel Serra.

Adam set that car’s flying lap of 3m51.860s shortly after the green flag, while James Calado slotted the #51 AF Corse Ferrari into second with a 3m52.087s just before the second red flag.

None of the #95 car’s drivers improved on its fastest time of 3m52.117 from the first qualifying session, so it remained third.

The #82 Risi Competizione Ferrari, which had its times struck off for a parc ferme infraction after first qualifying, ended up fourth thanks to a 3m52.138s by Giancarlo Fisichella.

Will Stevens took provisional GTE Am pole with a late 3m53.981s in the #84 JMW Motorsport Ferrari, overturning the previous best of 3m54.456s set by Mathias Lauda in the #98 Aston.

Euan Hankey also demoted the works Vantage, slotting into second place in the TF Sport-run Vantage with a 3m54.319s.

Qualifying results (top 10):

Pos.	#	Drivers	Car	Class	Time	Gap
1	7	Stéphane Sarrazin Kamui Kobayashi Mike Conway	Toyota TS050 Hybrid	LMP1	3'14.791
2	1	Andre Lotterer Neel Jani Nick Tandy	Porsche 919 Hybrid	LMP1	3'17.259	2.468
3	2	Timo Bernhard Brendon Hartley Earl Bamber	Porsche 919 Hybrid	LMP1	3'18.067	3.276
4	8	Anthony Davidson Kazuki Nakajima Sébastien Buemi	Toyota TS050 Hybrid	LMP1	3'19.431	4.640
5	9	Nicolas Lapierre Jose Maria Lopez Yuji Kunimoto	Toyota TS050 Hybrid	LMP1	3'19.889	5.098
6	25	Vitaly Petrov Simon Trummer Roberto Gonzalez	Oreca 07	LMP2	3'25.549	10.758
7	4	Marco Bonanomi Oliver Webb Dominik Kraihamer	ENSO CLM P1/01	LMP1	3'26.026	11.235
8	38	Oliver Jarvis Ho-Pin Tung Thomas Laurent	Oreca 07	LMP2	3'26.776	11.985
9	24	Jean-Eric Vergne Jonathan Hirschi Tor Graves	Oreca 07	LMP2	3'26.871	12.080
10	13	Nelson Piquet Jr. David Heinemeier Hansson Mathias Beche	Oreca 07	LMP2	3'27.021	12.230