French golfer Alexander Levy will take a three-shot lead into the final round of the Portugal Masters after being able to sit back and watch his title rivals fail to close the gap on Saturday.

Levy was one of only six players to complete their second rounds on Friday after thunderstorms and heavy rain forced the tournament to be reduced to 54 holes.

His 61 took him to 18 under par as he targets a second European Tour title having won the China Open in April.

Belgium’s Nicolas Colsaerts, who carded a 60 on Thursday, posted a 67 on Saturday and remained second on 15 under while Chile’s Felipe Aguilar sat third on 13 under.

“It’s always difficult to follow a really low score, but I’m quite happy with the way I played on the back nine coming in,” said Colsaerts.

“I got to the golf course yesterday at 7am and left at 7.30pm, so it was a pretty long day. Luckily I’m staying on site so you have the option of going back to the room. I didn’t really do that too much yesterday though.”

Richard Bland, Morten Orum Madsen and Romain Wattel are tied for fourth — seven shots off the lead.