The two-time championship runner-up produced a measured drive across the morning’s three stages to push his advantage over M-Sport Ford’s Ott Tanak out to 28.1s ahead of the final stage.
Hyundai’s Esapekka Lappi maintained third position, 1m02.7s adrift, while his team-mate Thierry Neuville returned to action after crashing out of the lead on Saturday morning.
World champion Kalle Rovanpera leapfrogged Toyota team-mate Sebastien Ogier into fourth, although 6.3s separated the pair. Takamoto Katsuta and M-Sport’s Pierre-Louis Loubet completed the Rally1 runners.
Toyota dominated the early morning start in Zagreb recording a 1-2-3-4 on stage 17 which featured roads not included in last year’s rally that Rovanpera had previously tested.
Despite being frustrated with his effort after electing to change his driving style, the Finn emerged fastest by 3.7s over Ogier, which was enough to wrestle fourth overall away from his team-mate.
The fight for the victory also continued to swing in Evans’ favour after he clocked the third-fastest time, 5.1s faster than rival Tanak, and therefore extended his rally lead to 30.5s.
“I heard the time of Kalle and I wasn't sure if it would be enough to be honest, but all good,” said Evans.
After suffering a series of issues with his Ford Puma on Saturday evening, Tanak didn’t report a continuation of these at stage end but was resigned to focusing on finishing the rally.
“I think if we can get to the end that would already be a positive. Let's try to finish this," said Tanak, who was 2.7s slower than Neuville.
Source: Autosport