Neuville headed to midday service with a 5.1s lead over Evans after an impressive morning headlined by a blistering time on stage nine.
Nine-time Monte Carlo winner Ogier dropped from second to third, but ended the loop 7.7s adrift.
Ott Tanak maintained fourth (+1m18.6s) despite suffering an engine issue on his Hyundai. M-Sport’s Adrien Fourmaux (+2m06.4s) produced a controlled drive to complete the loop in fifth ahead of team-mate Gregoire Munster, who climbed to sixth (+3m39.1s) in front of Hyundai’s Andreas Mikkelsen (+3m44.1s).
Toyota’s Takamoto Katsuta moved to eighth, as his recovery from losing five minutes to an off on Friday continued.
There was drama before the stages begun as Tanak’s i20N failed to fire up in parc ferme, which required a tow back to service where his team were able to revive the car.
Tanak was able to complete stage nine (Esparron/Oze 18.79km) but again suffered an engine issue reminiscent of the problem he suffered on Thursday night.
“This morning we had some engine trouble where it’s sometimes driving and sometimes not,” said Tanak, who posted the sixth fastest time.
The stage itself presented a tough challenge for the crews, thanks to patches of frost and areas that were incredibly slippy, and it wasn’t long before it caught out one of the drivers.
Mikkelsen flew off the road at the first corner and was lucky his i20 N found an embankment on the exit to use as run-off.
Source: Autosport