Kobayashi posted the longest jump of the day at the Norwegian venue with 232 metres on the ski flying hill, landing two metres further than Austria's Stefan Kraft.

The Japanese athlete, who has already wrapped up the overall World Cup title, finished with 213.6 points, with Kraft on 210.7 and Germanys Markus Eisenbichler, who reached 221m, tallying 197.5 in third place.

It was a spectacular demonstration of prowess at this International Ski Federation event, on the first of three days on Vikersund's Monsterbakken.

"When I was up there and saw the flight of Stefan, I didn't think that I could go even further," said Kobayashi, who is now only 6.6 points behind Kraft in the Raw Air ranking.

“It's great that I was able to do it.

"I'm not thinking about the overall ranking at all, I just take one jump at a time and hopefully I can show some good flights tomorrow and on Sunday (March 17)."

Norway's Robert Johansson lost some ground in the Raw Air ranking in today's qualification.

Johansson landed at 212m to finish eighth, losing more than 20 points to Kraft and Kobayashi.

The team competition in Vikersund will be held tomorrow, with the individual final starting on Sunday at the same time.

Vikersund is the last stop of the Raw Air Tournament, which groups together World Cup stops on four Norwegian hills.

A combined score crowns the winner with qualification and team events both counting.