Sweden's Mikael Lundberg made the most of ideal conditions to set the clubhouse target and boost his chances of a first European Tour victory in six years in the Lyoness Open powered by Greenfinity.
Lundberg added a 68 to his opening 67 at Diamond Country Club to finish nine under par, one shot ahead of playing partner Lee Slattery.
Slattery carded an eagle, five birdies and one bogey to return an impressive 66, with Korea's Sihwan Kim six under after a 68 and defending champion Joost Luiten another stroke back following a flawless 67.
“I hit a lot of good shots early on and managed to make some putts, so that got my confidence up,” said Lundberg.
“It’s a nice feeling when you get your distance control right with your wedges, because it takes a lot of pressure on your putting.
“It got tougher and tougher the longer the round went on, because the course got really firm and fast towards the end, so whilst it may look and feel easy, it never is.
“I’ve been doing some great work with my new coach, Neil Jordan, over the last few weeks, and my game is feeling a lot more solid as a result. So whilst I didn’t maybe expect to play this well here, it’s not a complete shock to me either.”
Lundberg had shared the overnight lead with England's Adam Gee, but wasted little time in moving clear of the field when play resumed on Friday.
The 40 year old, whose previous wins came in the Russian Open in 2005 and 2008, parred the first two holes but then spun his approach to a couple of feet at the third to begin a run of four straight birdies and move into a four shot lead.
Lundberg, whose last top-ten finish was almost two years ago and had to regain his card for the third successive year at the Qualifying School, dropped his first shot of the day after a clumsy chip on the eighth.
And although he saved par after missing the green on the tenth, his lead was down to two shots as Slattery holed from 15 feet for birdie on the same hole.
A birdie from 30 feet on the 12th saw Lundberg extend his lead, although he then missed from a fraction of the distance on the next after a superb approach and was unable to find any further birdies on the closing stretch.
That will have pleased the likes of Luiten, who was frustrated by his opening 72 but was delighted to have got back into contention for the victory which could help him move closer to a Ryder Cup debut in September.
"I'm very happy with five under," the 28 year old Dutchman said. "I made some nice saves for par and that's what you have to do around this course. You are going to be out of position sometimes and you have to play smart and try to save par.
"I am right back in there and that was the goal today, to try to make some ground on the leaders. We will see what happens and we have still 36 holes to go."
The best recovery of the day had come from Australian Brett Rumford, who played his first four holes in five over par but the remaining 14 in seven under to return a second round of 70 and finish one under par.
The biggest move of the afternoon session was coming from Paraguay's Fabrizio Zanotti, who had five birdies, two bogeys and an eagle over his first 14 holes to join Slattery on eight under.
Home favourite and 2012 winner Bernd Wiesberger had also made his way into the top ten, the Austrian birdieing the 14th and 15th to reach four under.
