Jonathan Thomson made three birdies in his first four holes to leapfrog overnight leader Wu Ashun and move one shot clear in round three of the KLM Open.
The Englishman has struggled in his maiden season on the European Tour but has found some excellent form recently, losing out in a play-off at the Made in Denmark and gathering momentum as he battles to keep his card.
The 22 year old birdied the second, third and fourth at The Dutch to get to 12 under, one ahead of playing partner Wu who had led by three overnight but dropped a shot on the second.
Belgian Thomas Detry carded a 63 to sit at nine under alongside Scot David Drysdale, three-time Major Championship winner Padraig Harrington and China's Li Haotong.
Wu's lead was cut to one on the second hole as the Chinese found the water for a bogey and Thomson holed from 12 feet to pick up a shot.
Drysdale also made a gain at the second after an approach to four feet and he was alongside Pablo Larrazábal who made a fast start.
The four time European Tour winner played his first event for two months at last week's Omega European Masters but showed no signs of rust in finishing 16th and was going well again.
After birdies on the second and fourth, he put his second to ten feet on the par five sixth to secure an eagle.
Li was the next man to join that expanding group at nine under, hitting an excellent tee-shot into the fourth and making his first birdie of the day.
A bogey on the eighth dropped Larrazábal to eight under and he was replaced by Harrington who made a birdie on the 12th. The Irishman had birdies the second, third, fourth, sixth and seventh before dropping a shot on the eighth on the front nine.
Thomson then hit a lovely pitch out of the rough into the third and the lead was shared.
Detry birdied the last to set the target at nine under after carding the low round of the week. He birdied the fourth and then made five in a row from the sixth before holing from 15 feet on the 13th. A 20-footer on the 16th got him to nine under before he dropped a shot after a finding sand on the next.
Thomson did not hit the best tee-shot on the par three fourth but a stunning long putt made it three birdies in a row and he held the solo lead.
Larrazábal, Australian Andrew Dodt, England's Richard McEvoy and Andy Sullivan, Italian Andrea Pavan, Japanese Hideto Tanihara and South African Erik van Rooyen were eight under.
