Fleetwood & Rahm lead pursuit in Dubai while Lorenzo-Vera leads

Mike Lorenzo-Vera (right) came in second in four European Tour events without winning a first World Championship Championship second round leaderboard-12 M Lorenzo-Vera (Fra); -9 J Rahm (Spa), T Fleetwood (Eng); -7 T. Lewis (Eng) -6 R. McIlroy (NI); Selected others: -5 J Rose (Eng); -3 D Willett (Eng) Full scoreboard

The English Tommy Fleetwood and the Spanish Ryder Cup teammate Jon Rahm are three hits from leader Mike Lorenzo-Vera at the World Tour Championship in Dubai.

Fleetwood & # 39; s four-under 68 included seven birdies and three bogeys.

France's number 96 Lorenzo-Vera, who started the day free from Rory McIlroy, was seven shots ahead at one point, before his lead was shortened.

McIlroy from Northern Ireland dropped to fifth place after a double lap that never recovered from a double bogey in six.

It contrasted with his efforts on Thursday when he carded an eight-under 64.

"It's a very fickle game," McIlroy said. "That is golf. I fought through it.

" I still have the call to win this tournament. You just have to put your head down on the weekend and get there and try to shoot some good scores. "

Either Rahm and Fleetwood would be crowned as Race to Dubai champion if they were solo in second place for the other, provided that the Austrian Bernd Wiesberger, currently jointly 13th, did not climb the upper reaches of the leaderboard

"There are many things going on around you, so the more internally focused you can be and the more you can just stay in your bubble … it will just be a big challenge every weekend to go to do that, "said Fleetwood.

Frenchman Lorenzo-Vera, 34, is chasing the first European Tour title of his career.

" I have a few shots at the end and made a putt on the last three times, "he said.

" It's just the game. I have a lead of three shots and it is better than [being] three shots behind. It just gets stressful because there are big dogs behind me trying to bite me, so it gets interesting. "