Mikko Korhonen edged into a two-shot lead on day three of the Shot Clock Masters as players were handed time penalties for the first time at Diamond Country Club.
Players are penalised a stroke if they do not play their shot in the allotted time this week and it was Austrian Clemens Prader who was the first man to fall foul.
Scot Grant Forrest then became the second player to incur a penalty but the leaders were having no such problems as Korhonen turned in 33 to get to 12 under and extend his bogey-free run to 45 holes.
Dane Jeppe Pape Huldahl - who did not play on either the Challenge or European Tours in 2016 and 2017 - was his closest challenger, a shot ahead of 2016 champion Wu Ashun.
Australian Adam Bland, Swede Peter Hanson, veteran Spaniard Miguel Ángel Jiménez, Scot Connor Syme and South African Justin Walters were then at seven under.
Finn Korhonen extended his overnight lead to two shots with a birdie on the par five first thanks to an approach to four feet.
The group in second was swelling, however, thanks to a Huldahl birdie on the second and Wu also made a gain on the third but he was soon three back as a ten-footer from Korhonen moved him to 11 under.
A beautiful tee-shot into the sixth saw Huldahl cut the gap to two and when he hit a huge drive down the ninth to help set up a birdie chance from 20 feet, the 2009 Wales Open champion holed a right-to-lefter to get into double figures.
Wu had dropped a shot on the eighth but be bounced straight back on the next.
Korhonen hit every green in regulation on the front nine and an approach to eight feet on the ninth edged him back into a two-shot lead.
Bland set the clubhouse target with birdies on the first, third, fourth, sixth, tenth and 11th in a bogey-free 66.
Syme had been at eight under when he chipped in on the 13th for a fourth birdie of the day but he gave the shot straight back on the next, while Hanson also had four birdies and a bogey in his first 12 holes.
Jiménez had two birdies and a bogey to turn in level par and Walters had a single bogey on the third on the front nine.
Prader made European Tour history when he took four seconds over his allotted 50 to take a putt on the 16th, while Forrest took three seconds over his 40 on an approach to the 15th.
