Eugenio Chacarra continued his push for a successful title defence with a second-round 69 at the 2026 Hero Indian Open.
The Spaniard, who on Thursday referred to last year's win as "a week that changed my life", reached eight under par to lead by one stroke from playing partner Casey Jarvis in his bid for a repeat performance.
Jarvis' 64 was the best round of the week so far as, chasing his third DP World Tour win already this season, he recorded nine birdies and just a solitary bogey round the formidable DLF G&CC in New Delhi.
Fellow South African MJ Daffue was a shot further back in third, with first-round leader Freddy Schott five under after a battling 73.
The German was alongside Alex Fitzpatrick and Jacob Skov Olesen, two of the 29 players still to complete their second rounds due to an earlier delay for lightning in the area.
Chacarra had a slow start to his second round with bogeys at the tenth - his opening hole - and the 14th.
He had to watch Jarvis pour in five birdies on that back nine but found a response with an eagle three at the 18th to get back to level par for the day and give himself some momentum to take through the turn.
Chacarra bogeyed the third, where Jarvis made the second of another pair of consecutive birdies, but the one bogey of Jarvis' day came at the fourth where Chacarra made birdie.
A magnificent tee-shot to the island fifth set up another gain for Chacarra and both players made a late pair of birdies, Jarvis at the seventh and eighth and Chacarra at the eighth and ninth.
Chacarra said: "Like I said at the start of the week, I think the good vibes when I got here, the good memories came up and when I'm having fun playing golf, I already proved I'm one of the best players in the world.
"It's been a great two days, a great group obviously. Casey and Francesco (Molinari), great guys and tremendous players. Casey (showed) us all today how to score, how to play golf, and it was fun to watch.
"And yeah, my game's there. I didn't have the best of the starts on my putting but I feel like my ball striking has been outstanding and around these places, you have that, you're going to take advantage of the course.
"From the tee I've been really, really good and especially the driver - I think I hit it on five holes and I hit every fairway."
The 26-year-old is bidding to join India's S.S.P. Chawrasia, in 2016 and 2017, as a back-to-back winner of this event and he added: "Every time I tee off, I want to win. That’s that way I have been since I was little and that’s the goal."
Jarvis, whose highlights included long birdie putts at the second and seventh, said: "The greens were obviously a little bit softer this morning, so kind of took advantage of that on my front nine. And then we also had a bit of rain, which helped for the back nine.
"I can't count the feet of putts I made today, but I know it is a whole lot."
Daffue, winner of last week's DP World PGTI Open on the HotelPlanner Tour, started on the back nine with two birdies and then an eagle at the 18th, and added three birdies on the front nine before his second dropped shot of the day at the closing ninth hole.
Schott, having played the back nine first in level par, drifted over par for his round with three straight bogeys before finishing on a high with a brilliant approach to set up a birdie at the ninth.
Fitzpatrick enjoyed an eventful run of nine holes without a par before play was suspended, with four straight birdies into the turn and then three more sandwiched between dropped shots at the tenth and 14th.
Olesen had also completed 14 holes and was five under for his front nine, and bogey-free until he found a bunker at the 12th. Ugo Coussaud shot a tidy 69, with three birdies in four holes including the difficult 14th, to sit at four under.