Rikard Karlberg jumped to the top of the leaderboard early on the second day of the 72° OPEN D'ITALIA presented by DAMIANI as the favourable scoring conditions continued at Golf Club Milano.
Nicolas Colsaerts had led overnight after a flawless 63 on Thursday but he was soon overtaken on Friday morning by Karlberg and Bernd Wiesbereger.
Karlberg, starting his round on the tenth, birdied his first hole of the day and then made four consecutive gains from the 14th to turn in 31. A further birdie followed on the first and when the Swede picked up a shot on the foruth, he was 12 under and two clear of Wiesberger.
The Austrian had also started on the tenth and he played his first nine holes in 32 thanks to birdies on the 11th, 14th, 16th and 17th.
They were the only two players to manage to leapfrog the first round leader, who was not due out until 1310 local time, but the chasing pack were closing in with four players on eight under.
David Lipsky was three under for the day through 12 holes, Romain Wattel had also picked up three shots having played eight while Jens Fahbring and Lucas Bjerregaard were three and two under respectively after seven holes.
Two-time Major Championship winner Martin Kaymer, playing in the same group as Wiesberger, was also making good progress at three under and he was sat in the group at seven under with Matthew Nixon, Wade Ormsby, Alejandro Cañizares and amateur Stefano Mazzoli.
