The Toyota driver could afford to take a measured approach given his sizeable advantage, but ended the morning loop, held in dry conditions, winning two of the four stages, to lead by 1m35.5s. Nearest rival Ogier was able to claw 14.4s back on Evans across the morning.
Toyota’s lockout of the top three positions continued with two-time world champion Kalle Rovanpera in third, 2m10.7s adrift.
Hyundai’s Esapekka Lappi managed to climb from seventh to fourth (+3m51.4s), leaping ahead of WRC2 runners Andreas Mikkelsen (+3m54.2s), Gregoire Munster (+3m57.6s) and Nikolay Gryazin (+4m32.8s).
M-Sport’s Ott Tanak (+4m34.3s), Toyota’s Takamoto Katsuta (+4m46.7s) and former Formula 1 driver Heikki Kovalainen (+8m37.4s) rounded out the top 10.
Hyundai’s Thierry Neuville was able to rejoin the rally after crashing out of second in stage six on Friday, although team-mate Dani Sordo and M-Sport’s Adrien Fourmaux were unable to restart after their stage two crashes. Fourmaux’s Ford Puma only returned to the service park at 10pm on Friday night, but damage to the roll cage prevented a repair on site.
The morning began in bizarre circumstances when officials red flagged stage nine (Nukata Forest, 20.32km) after crews encountered a safety car on the stage.
Neuville was the first to come across the stranded zero car which was pulled over to one side of the road midway through the test.
Source: Autosport