Danny Willett joined Bernd Wiesberger at the top of the leaderboard as the third round of the Maybank Championship got under way at Saujana Golf and Country Club.
The Englishman had kept in touch with the leaders over the first two days as some of the work done over the winter break paid off and he hit the summit for the first time courtesy of a birdie on the third.
Wiesberger parred his first three holes to stay at 12 under, a shot ahead of David Lipsky and two clear of Mike Lorenzo-Vera.
Lipsky made the first move with a birdie on the opening hole from five feet to get to ten under while James Morrison - who had finished his round on Friday with an eagle - made birdies on the second and fourth to sit a shot behind.
Grégory Havret also moved into the group three off the lead with gains on the first, fourth, seventh and eighth.
Morrison and Havret then both dropped shots while Lorenzo-Vera made a move in the other direction, taking advantage of the par five third to sit alongside Lipsky.
Willett made a smart up-and-down from the sand on the same hole to take a share of the lead and Lipsky replaced him at 11 under with a birdie.
Havret and Morrison then found themselves in a group at eight under alongside Renato Paratore, who was four under after 11 holes, and Fabrizio Zanotti who was three under after eight.
Shiv Kapur, Anirban Lahiri and Alexander Levy were also four off the lead with early gains, while Shubhankar Sharma was in that group and level par for the day.
