Rafa Cabrera Bello finished with three birdies as he carded a second-round 66 to set the clubhouse target at the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship.
The Spaniard did not miss a single cut in the 2016 European Tour season as he made his Ryder Cup debut but he is without a win since 2012 when he won the Dubai Desert Classic.
The UAE clearly agrees with him and he made seven birdies on Friday morning at Abu Dhabi Golf Club to get to 11 under, one shot clear of England's Tommy Fleetwood.
Pablo Larrazábal, the 2014 champion, was then at nine under after a 67, a score matched by South Korea's Jeunghun Wang.
Overnight leader Henrik Stenson picked up a single shot in his first five holes to also sit in that group two shots off the lead.
Cabrera Bello made gains on the 12th, 13th - where he yesterday made a double-bogey - 15th and 16th before dropping a shot on the sixth but the best was yet to come.
An excellent tee-shot on the par three seventh set up a bounceback birdie and he then took advantage of the par five eighth before finishing with another birdie.
Fleetwood bogeyed his first hole on Thursday but has not dropped a shot in his next 35 to move up the leaderboard.
The one-time Tour winner - who turned 26 yesterday - made the most of the par fives, birdieing the second, eighth and last, while also picking up shots on the par four 11th and 14th.
Reigning Sir Henry Cotton Rookie of the Year Wang birdied the tenth, 12th, 14th and sixth - just as he had on Thursday - before adding a closing gain on the ninth.
Larrazábal started on the tenth and he made hay on the par threes, registering twos on the 12th, 15th, fourth and seventh and adding further gains on the 17th and first with a bogey on the third.
Swede Stenson opened with a birdie on the first and while he gave a shot back on the third, he put his tee-shot to 12 feet on the next to pick it back up.
England's Tyrrell Hatton got off to a fast start, picking up shots on the first, third and fourth in his opening five holes to get to eight under, a shot clear of countrymen Chris Hanson and Lee Westwood, German Maximilian Kieffer, Australian amateur Curtis Luck, Austria's Bernd Wiesberger. American Peter Uihlein and Swede Peter Hanson.
Luck had the low round of the day so far with a 65, while Hanson finished his round birdie-eagle to sign for a 66.
