Ricardo Gouveia birdied the opening four holes on Saturday to climb up the leaderboard at the Lyoness Open powered by Sporthilfe Cashback Card.
The 24 year old began the day six strokes behind co-leaders Zander Lombard and Grégory Bourdy after following up Thursday's 69 with a 74 on Friday.
But the Portuguese rookie made the most of favourable scoring conditions on Saturday morning, making gains at each of the first four holes to jump to five under par and sit just two shots back from Lombard and Bourdy.
England's Chris Paisley also made a strong start to his third round, carding birdies at five of his first six holes before his progress was halted by a bogey at the seventh which saw him slip back to four under.
Spain's Borja Virto closed the gap on the leaders to just one shot when he notched a birdie at the first - a feat he has achieved in every round so far this week.
Sweden's Marcus Kinhult, starting the day on level par, climbed up to four under after picking up four shots in his opening seven holes, while Canada's Richard T Lee fired an eagle and four birdies on his way to a flawless 66 that took him to three under.
America's Daniel Im made an ace at the sixth on his way to a level-par 72.
