Luke Donald marched into a five stroke lead with a brilliant back nine 31 in the Madrid Masters second round.
Joint overnight pacesetter with Welsh pair Rhys Davies and Jamie Donaldson, Donald birdied five of his first seven holes to reach 12 under par.
It was a great response to losing the BMW PGA Championship by one on Sunday after double-bogeying the penultimate hole - and the gulf between him and the rest would have gone to six if he had not missed a five foot chance at the 388 yard 18th, his ninth.
Davies and Donaldson were among the later starters and would not have liked the fact that the wind had begun to gather strength, while Dubliner Paul McGinley was joined in fourth place by Ulsterman Graeme McDowell - helped by pitching in for eagle from 113 yards on the 10th.
Donald stretched the gap to six with a tee shot to four feet on the short second, although McDowell in the group behind then matched the birdie and with another on the 582 yard went second on his own five back.
Into third spot came Scot Marc Warren by going to the turn in 32 and then grabbing his fifth birdie of the round on the 534 yard tenth.
Donald was on course for the lowest halfway total of the season when he made an eight footer at the sixth and reached 14 under, but he then bogeyed the next two.
First he three-putted and then he plugged his approach in a bunker and failed to get up and down.
Back to 12 under, he was three ahead of McDowell, who also three-putted the seventh after driving the previous green and making his fourth birdie in five holes.
