England’s Tommy Fleetwood returned to form in Morocco to claim a share of the clubhouse lead at the Trophée Hassan II.
The Johnnie Walker Championship winner, who had missed his last two cuts, set the pace for much of the morning after covering the back nine in just 30 shots thanks to four birdies and an eagle on the 17th.
However, the former English Amateur Champion was frustrated to then card seven straight pars before three-putting the eighth.
A birdie on the last swiftly made amends for that mistake and meant Fleetwood joined compatriot Andy Sullivan and Scotland’s Marc Warren on six under.
Former Walker Cup star Sullivan finished his round in style with four straight birdies.
Warren carded his lowest round of the season, having made a slow start to the 2014 Race to Dubai where he currently resides in 142nd place.
The former World Cup winner has missed the cut in three of his five events, but the 32 year old rediscovered some of the form which took him to a career-best 33rd on last season’s Race to Dubai to card an opening 66 at Golf du Palais Royal.
After starting from the tenth and covering the back nine in 32, Warren picked up shots at the third, fifth and seventh to move into the outright lead on seven under.
His only bogey of the day came on the eighth, where his tee shot found an awkward lie in the back of a greenside bunker, and that dropped him into a share of the lead.
Scotland's Peter Whiteford and India's Gaganjeet Bhullar were a shot behind after rounds of 67, while defending champion Marcel Siem returned a 69.
Siem, who enjoyed a wire-to-wire win here 12 months ago, picked up a neck injury on his flight to Agadir and was advised to pull out of the pre-tournament pro-am on Wednesday.
The 33 year old showed few signs of the problem as he carded five birdies in his first six holes before dropping shots on the 16th and 18th.
A birdie on the first took Siem back to four under but he had to scramble a par on the fifth after finding water with his approach to the par five and then double-bogeyed the next after fluffing his chip.
Another birdie on the last meant Siem finished three under par alongside playing partner George Coetzee, who is looking for a good performance to climb inside the top 50 on the Official World Golf Ranking from 56th in order to secure a place in the Masters Tournament next month.
