Eli Evans holds a healthy lead heading into the final day of the Rally Australia round of the Australian Rally Championship.

Evans and co-driver Glen Weston recorded three stage wins from Saturday’s four stages to open up a 1 minutes and 19.7s lead over Steve and Brent Mackenzie, while Molly Taylor and Bill Hayes remain in third.

The leading Citroen DS3 pair continued their strong run with a comfortable 20.4s victory on the gruelling 50.8km Nambucca stage, before pipping Tony Sullens’ Citroen on the 7.9km Valla test.

Mackenzie fought back with victory on the second run through Nambucca, but Evans responded with a narrow 0.9s win over Harry Bates (Toyoto Corolla) on the night run through Valla.

“No issues today, just really, really happy with how I drove,” said Evans.

“I was most happy with how I managed my tyres, I could have pushed harder but the tyres probably would have exploded under the strain.

“One more day to go, no risks is the plan, looking forward to making it to the finish hopefully in the same position as we have right now.”

The third and final day of Coates Hire Rally Australia gets underway on Sunday with the 21.95km Bucca Long test.