The 32-year-old fired a second consecutive 66 to reach 12 under par, one shot ahead of Spaniard Rafa Cabrera Bello.

As a three-time winner, Kaymer has buckets of experience to draw on as he approaches the business end of the weekend, but he said: “I don’t think it’s good if you reflect on it and see it for what it is. If you try to judge it, then you put something to it that adds a mental pressure.”

Cabrera Bello had held the lead for much of the day after adding a 66 to his opening 67, the 32-year-old Spaniard responding to his only bogey of the day on the sixth – his 15th hole – with birdies on the seventh, eighth and ninth.