VILAMOURA, 11 Oct, 2014 (AFP) - 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 is in 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.
Leading and selected second round scores at the rain-hit Portugal Masters on Saturday. The event has been reduced to 54 holes (GBR/IRL unless stated, par 71):
124 - Alexander Levy (FRA) 63 61
127 - Nicolas Colsaerts (BEL) 60 67
129 - Felipe Aguilar (CHI) 65 64
131 - Richard Bland 66 65, Romain Wattel (FRA) 67 64, Morten Orum Madsen (DEN) 65 66
132 - Chris Wood 68 64, Danny Willett 65 67, Gregory Bourdy (FRA) 67 65, Scott Jamieson 63 69, Michael Hoey 65 67
133 - Thomas Aiken (RSA) 66 67, Tommy Fleetwood 68 65, Paul Waring 67 66, Adrian Otaegui (ESP) 63 70, Rafael Cabrera Bello (ESP) 64 69
134 - Ricardo Gonzalez (ARG) 69 65, John Hahn (USA) 67 67, Thongchai Jaidee (THA) 67 67, Graeme Storm 69 65
135 - Magnus A Carlsson (SWE) 69 66, Branden Grace (RSA) 66 69, Marcel Siem (GER) 67 68, George Coetzee (RSA) 68 67, Emiliano Grillo (ARG) 67 68, Marc Warren 69 66, Thorbjorn Olesen (DEN) 71 64, Justin Walters (RSA) 68 67, Nacho Elvira (ESP) 67 68
136 - David Drysdale 68 68, Ryan Evans 68 68, Pedro Figueiredo (POR) 67 69
Selected:
137 - Jbe Kruger (RSA) 66 71
138 - Padraig Harrington 72 66
139 - Jeev Milkha Singh (IND) 72 67, Paul McGinley 67 72
Missed cut:
140 - Oliver Wilson 72 68
141 - Kim Sihwan (KOR) 74 67, Hennie Otto (RSA) 72 69
142 - Darren Fichardt (RSA) 69 73, Darren Clarke 71 71
146 - Shiv Kapur (IND) 76 70
148 - Jeong Jin (KOR) 71 77