Thierry Neuville took over at the top for Hyundai as Toyota rivals suffered tyre problems on the treacherous penultimate leg of Rally Croatia on Saturday.
The Belgian will take a comfortable lead of one minute and 14.5 seconds into Sunday's final stages with Toyota's Takamoto Katsuta - with his Irish co-driver Aaron Johnston - and Sami Pajari second and third respectively.
Derry's Joshua McErlean is 16th overall, while Cavan's Craig Rahill and Fermanagh native Jon Armstrong sit 20th and 37th respectively.
Neuville and co-driver Martijn Wydaeghe were one of the few crews not to suffer punctures on the asphalt roads - with some scattered loose gravel - inland from the Adriatic port of Rijeka and hit the front on stage 14.
"After a difficult run recently, I have been looking forward to just having a good feeling in the car for a while, but now being back on the pace and leading the rally is great," said Neuville.
"It's important for the team that we bring home this victory.
"I think it will be difficult – we’ll be last on the road too and I don’t think we have enough pace to be fastest, especially on tomorrow’s stages. They should be cleaner, so we just need to secure first place and bring it home."
Finn Pajari had led overnight but lost two minutes changing a wheel and tyre on stage 14.
Katsuta, winner of the previous round in Kenya, also lost front-left tyre pressure on that stage, which cost him a minute and a half, but still moved up to second overall and 31.9 ahead of his team-mate after going fastest on stage 13.
Toyota's championship leader Elfyn Evans and closest rival and team-mate Oliver Solberg, eight points behind in the standings, both restarted after crashing out on Friday.
Sweden's Solberg won six of the day’s eight stages with Welshman Evans taking the day’s final one. Both drivers can collect valuable points on Sunday under the WRC scoring system.
"I did have a couple of slow punctures in the afternoon but we won all the other stages, so it’s been a good day overall," said Solberg.
"I’m feeling confident about tomorrow: we will have the perfect starting position, and the speed today has been very good."
Sunday features four stages with five points available in the final Power Stage and five from the Super Sunday classification.
