Marco Penge's composed display puts him top at halfway stage of Open de Espana

The Englishman had four birdies, including the final two holes, in a 67 to move to nine under par and one ahead of Aaron Cockerill, Joel Girrbach and Jeff Winther.

"Very patient day, nice to have a bogey-free round," said Penge. "I played pretty solid, still a couple of bits there that I can improve on but all in all it was a steady round of golf.

"I think if you're not patient, it's going to catch you out. It's so tricky and a little bit fiddly and if you're not fully focused or concentrating over every shot, you're going to make bogeys.

"I wasn't really focusing on my score out there, it was mainly just to stay as patient as I could and see what the round gives me. I finished with two birdies there, when you are patient you do get rewarded so I did get that today."

An approach to two and a half feet at the eighth set up the only birdie of Penge's front nine, and he added another with a ten-foot putt at the 11th.

He put his tee-shot inside three feet at the par-three 17th and a booming drive at the last set him up for a fourth gain.

Looking ahead to the weekend, he said: "More of the same. My game feels pretty good, it doesn't feel amazing but I feel like I'm managing my game really well.

"I had a good range session after my round yesterday so today was slightly better - still probably only about a seven out of ten but hopefully I can play some better golf over the weekend."

Winther's 64, which featured five birdies along with an eagle at the 14th, matched the best round of the day set by fellow Scandinavian Joakim Lagergren.

Girrbach produced a superb bogey-free 65, with pairs of birdies at the 12th and 13th and then the 16th and 17th having started on the back nine. Another followed at the fourth before a perfect approach to the sixth left him to add another from four feet.

Cockerill shot 67 for the second successive day and produced a near-identical front and back nine to boot. The Canadian birdied the fourth, bogeyed the seventh and responded with a pair of birdies - then, after the turn, had a gain at the 14th before again finishing bogey-birdie-birdie.

He said: "I played really solid tee to green made a couple of good putts where I needed to, couple of birdies at the end of each nine. Overall very happy with the day."

Lagergren, who was thrilled with a round that he said "felt sort of effortless", was seven under alongside Daniel Brown, Bernd Wiesberger, Patrick Reed and late finishers Alexander Levy and Julien Guerrier.

American Reed followed up his opening 68 with a 67 but remained frustrated. He said: "If I hit the ball like I did today over the weekend, I'll give myself a lot of opportunities - I just need the putter working like it did the first day."

Angel Ayora remained the leading Spaniard at six under, two shots ahead of three-time champion Jon Rahm. Angel Hidalgo, who beat Rahm in a play-off on a memorable final day last year, saw his title defence end early as he missed the cut at three over.