It was the fortunes of Hyundai duo Thierry Neuville and Adrien Fourmaux that caused the drama.
The retirement of Neuville on stage 11 moved Evans up to fifth, adding a potential two championship points.
A second puncture of the day for Fourmaux then saw the 37-year-old Welsh driver from Dolgellau move up to fourth position.
At that point, a lead of eight points over Solberg in the provisional championship standings seemed to hand the advantage to Evans and co-driver Scott Martin.
However, Fourmaux then set the fastest time on the final stage of the day to reclaim fourth spot – and put the title race very much back in the balance.
“Of course now we have to try and change the strategy a bit,” added Evans.
“I don’t think it will be straightforward tomorrow.”
Eight-time world champion Sebastien Ogier lies second, 33.6 seconds behind Solberg, with Sami Pajari – who still retains an outside chance of winning the title – in third position.
Evans trails fourth-place Fourmaux by just 6.4 seconds, and further changes to the top five positions cannot be ruled out on the final day.
Takamoto Katsuta is, however, more than three minutes behind his Welsh Toyota team-mate in sixth, ahead of M-Sport Ford’s Irish duo Jon Armstrong and Josh McErlean.
Armstrong, who has been struggling with understeer, is seventh while McErlean dropped to eighth after hitting a tree.
