It was the #7 Toyota TS050 Hybrid of Mike Conway and Kamui Kobayashi that led for much of the distance at the Belgian track, but two Full Course Yellows played into the hands of the sister #8 car.

The first of these came when the #86 Gulf Racing Porsche came to a halt on the start/finish straight just after half-distance, which led to the #7 Toyota pitting in anticipation of a caution period.

The second-placed #8 car stayed out an extra lap, and as the FCY only took effect just before Davidson pitted, a deficit of some 25 seconds became an advantage of 15 when Nakajima rejoined.

Conway was rapidly closing on Nakajima when a crash for Francois Perrodo in the #28 TDS Racing LMP2 car at Stavelot at the start of the fifth hour brought out the FCY again.

The #7 car had just pitted at this time, effectively giving the #8 crew a free stop and a lead of more than 40 seconds, but this was steadily whittled away in the final part of the race as spots of rain hit the track.

Kobayashi had brought down the gap to Buemi in the lead Toyota to just two seconds at the start of the final lap, but was baulked by traffic as he strove to close down the Swiss driver.

Buemi held on to win by just 1.992s over Kobayashi at the finish.

Porsche took third and fourth places with its pair of low-downforce configuration 919 Hybrids, with the #2 car of Brendon Hartley, Earl Bamber and Timo Bernhard earning the final podium spot despite suffering an early puncture and needing a late change of front bodywork.

Hartley had passed Conway for second place in the penultimate hour, but lost the place as a result of a clash with Romain Dumas in the #36 Signatech Alpine at the Bus Stop chicane, which left a hole in the front-left corner of Hartley's car.

Armed with fresh front bodywork, the New Zealander ended up 35 seconds adrift of the leaders.

The polesitting #1 car of Andre Lotterer, Neel Jani and Nick Tandy lacked the speed of its sister entry and ended up a minute and 25 seconds behind the winners at the chequered flag.

Toyota's low-downforce #9 car, shared by Stephane Sarrazin, Nicolas Lapierre and WEC debutant Yuji Kunimoto, never featured in the lead fight and finished a lapped fifth.

The sole privateer LMP1 car, the ByKolles ENSO CLM P1/01, enjoyed a clean run to finish sixth overall, 12 laps down.

G-Drive scoops LMP2 honours

In the LMP2 class, the #26 G-Drive trio of Alex Lynn, Pierre Thiriet and Roman Rusinov followed up on their pole position by taking a first victory of the season.

The contest for class honours had developed into a two-horse race between the TDS-run G-Drive Oreca and the #31 Rebellion car of Bruno Senna, Julien Canal and Nicolas Prost.

But Rebellion's hopes were dashed when they lost a minute repairing a loose telemetry sensor with a little over an hour to go, relegating the #31 car to third.

However, Senna was able to pass the #38 JOTA Sport-run DC Racing Oreca of Silverstone winners Oliver Jarvis, Ho-Pin Tung and Thomas Laurent to take back second in the final half-hour.

JOTA's #37 car had been in contention in the early stages, with Alex Brundle leading at one point, but was ruled out of contention when Tristan Gommendy spun the car at Eau Rouge and hit the barriers, damaging the rear bodywork.

Ferrari takes dominant 1-2 in GTE

Ferrari dominated the GTE Pro ranks with its pair of AF Corse-run 488 GTEs, which were locked in a fierce scrap for the win virtually throughout the entire race.

Both the #51 and #71 cars swapped positions on numerous occasions as they fought over the class lead - with Sam Bird even forcing Alessandro Pier Guidi off track at Rivage at one stage.

But the #71 car was able to pull away decisively from the #51 in the final hour, Bird and Davide Rigon beating James Calado and Pier Guidi by a lap at the finish.

The two Ford GTs finished third and fourth, the #66 car of Stefan Mucke, Olivier Pla and Billy Johnson completing the podium - 30 seconds behind the second Ferrari.

Harry Tincknell, Andy Priaulx and Pipo Derani were delayed by a fuel priming problem that caused the sister #67 machine to come to a brief halt after its first stop, forcing the crew to fight their way back past the two Porsche 911 RSRs to reach fourth.

In GTE Am, the #98 Aston Martin of Pedro Lamy, Mathias Lauda and Paul Dalla Lana cruised to a dominant victory, beating the #77 Proton Porsche by over 30 seconds.

Pos.	#	Drivers	Car	Class	Gap
1	8	Anthony Davidson   Kazuki Nakajima   Sébastien Buemi	Toyota TS050 Hybrid	LMP1	173 laps
2	7	Kamui Kobayashi   Mike Conway	Toyota TS050 Hybrid	LMP1	1.992
3	2	Timo Bernhard   Brendon Hartley   Earl Bamber	Porsche 919 Hybrid	LMP1	35.283
4	1	Andre Lotterer   Neel Jani   Nick Tandy	Porsche 919 Hybrid	LMP1	1'25.438
5	9	Stéphane Sarrazin   Nicolas Lapierre   Yuji Kunimoto	Toyota TS050 Hybrid	LMP1	2 laps
6	4	Oliver Webb   Dominik Kraihamer   James Rossiter	ENSO CLM P1/01	LMP1	12 laps
7	26	Roman Rusinov    Pierre Thiriet   Alex Lynn	Oreca 07	LMP2	13 laps
8	31	Bruno Senna   Julien Canal   Nicolas Prost	Oreca 07	LMP2	13 laps
9	38	Oliver Jarvis   Ho-Pin Tung   Thomas Laurent	Oreca 07	LMP2	13 laps
10	13	Nelson Piquet Jr.   David Heinemeier Hansson   Mathias Beche	Oreca 07	LMP2	14 laps
11	36	Romain Dumas   Gustavo Menezes   Matt Rao	Alpine A470	LMP2	14 laps
12	35	Nelson Panciatici   Pierre Ragues   Andre Negrao	Alpine A470	LMP2	15 laps
13	24	Jean-Eric Vergne   Jonathan Hirschi   Tor Graves	Oreca 07	LMP2	15 laps
14	25	Vitaly Petrov   Simon Trummer   Roberto Gonzalez	Oreca 07	LMP2	15 laps
15	28	François Perrodo   Emmanuel Collard   Matthieu Vaxivière	Oreca 07	LMP2	15 laps
16	37	David Cheng   Tristan Gommendy   Alex Brundle	Oreca 07	LMP2	17 laps
17	71	Sam Bird   Davide Rigon	Ferrari 488 GTE	LMGTE PRO	22 laps
18	51	James Calado   Alessandro Pier Guidi	Ferrari 488 GTE	LMGTE PRO	23 laps
19	66	Stefan Mücke   Olivier Pla   Billy Johnson	Ford GT	LMGTE PRO	23 laps
20	67	Pipo Derani   Harry Tincknell   Andy Priaulx	Ford GT	LMGTE PRO	23 laps
21	91	Richard Lietz   Frédéric Makowiecki	Porsche 911 RSR	LMGTE PRO	24 laps
22	92	Michael Christensen   Kevin Estre	Porsche 911 RSR	LMGTE PRO	24 laps
23	97	Darren Turner   Jonathan Adam   Daniel Serra	Aston Martin Vantage	LMGTE PRO	25 laps
24	95	Marco Sorensen   Nicki Thiim   Richie Stanaway	Aston Martin Vantage	LMGTE PRO	25 laps
25	98	Pedro Lamy   Paul Dalla Lana   Mathias Lauda	Aston Martin Vantage	LMGTE AM	27 laps
26	77	Christian Ried   Matteo Cairoli   Marvin Dienst	Porsche 911 RSR (991)	LMGTE AM	27 laps
27	61	Matt Griffin   Mok Weng Sun   Keita Sawa	Ferrari 488 GTE	LMGTE AM	28 laps
28	54	Francesco Castellacci   Miguel Molina   Thomas Flohr	Ferrari 488 GTE	LMGTE AM	29 laps
Ret	34	Karun Chandhok   Nigel Moore    Philip Hanson	Ligier JSP 217	LMP2	22 laps
Ret	86	Michael Wainwright   Ben Barker   Nick Foster Jr.	Porsche 911 RSR (991)	LMGTE AM	97 laps