MADEIRA, Portugal, May 12, 2012 (AFP) - The 26-year-old, ranked 397 in the world, had been five shots off the pace overnight, but a third round nine under par 63 took him to 17 under for the tournament.
Del Moral carded six birdies in an outward 30 and then had three more on the homeward stretch.
Second round leader Oliver Wilson of England managed just a 72 and is four off the pace in joint third place while Sweden's Joakim Lagergren is second on 14 under following a 70.
Leading scores from EPGA Madeira Islands Open after the third round on Saturday (GBR/IRL unless stated; par-72):
199 - Carlos Del Moral (ESP) 69-67-63
202 - Joakim Lagergren (SWE) 66-66-70
203 - Mikael Lundberg (SWE) 69-70-64, Magnus A Carlsson (SWE) 66-66-71, Oliver Wilson 66-65-72, Ricardo Santos (POR) 68-67-68
204 - Richard Bland 68-67-69, Sihwan Kim (NOR) 68-66-70, Andreas Harto (DEN) 67-71-66
205 - Charlie Ford 67-68-70, Knut Borsheim (NOR) 68-69-68
206 - Gary Orr 69-69-68, John Parry 71-70-65, Shiv Kapur (IND) 70-68-68, David Dixon 68-68-70, Matthew Baldwin 67-70-69
207 - Thomas Norret (DEN) 69-68-70, Hans Peter Bacher (AUT) 67-69-71, Alastair Forsyth 69-68-70, Julien Guerrier (FRA) 70-69-68, Chris Paisley 69-69-69