A closing double bogey from Ryder Cup Dane Soren Hansen - the only one on the hole all day - left England's Chris Wood and Australian Scott Strange sharing the halfway lead at the Mercedes-Benz Championship in Cologne.

Wood, the 21-year-old from Bristol who was third in The Open in July, continued his bid for a first European Tour title with a 69.

For the second day running he kept a bogey off his card - he cannot recall ever doing that on consecutive days in his career - but his round did include a chip-in par at the short eighth and then a holed bunker shot on the 458-yard 14th.

"It was a bit of a battle, but I'll take another 18 holes without a bogey - and hopefully another 36," said Wood, who now stands nine under par.

Only two players, Englishman David J Russell and Swede Jesper Parnevik, have ever gone through a tournament without dropping a shot and both of them won.

"As long as I keep putting myself in position a win is going to happen. I just hope it's sooner rather than later," Wood said.

"The greens here are up there with the best I've ever putted on, but that has got to be some of the tightest flags I've ever played to."

Strange, winner of last year's Wales Open and this season's China Open, scored a 68, while Hansen's 71 dropped him into a tie for third with South African James Kingston and England's Ross Fisher.

Darren Clarke (70) and Paul McGinley (68) head the Irish challenge on four under, with Graeme McDowell two shots back after a 72.

Shane Lowry is treading water on three over after he too shot a level par round, while Gareth Maybin’s 73 dropped him back to five over and Michael Hoey (77) is nine over.

Earlier, tournament host Bernhard Langer double-bogeyed the 191-yard fourth hole for the second day running to deliver a big blow to his hopes of becoming the tour’s oldest-ever winner.

After fighting back from four-over-par to one under yesterday the 52-year-old resumed six behind Hansen and in joint 35th place. The two dropped shots, however, set him on his way to a 75 and a tie for 59th. Even with no halfway cut it would be a superhuman effort to climb into contention from two over.

Ryder Cup captain Colin Montgomerie, who had to settle for an opening level par 72, went three better today leaving him in with a shout of a first top 10 finish since June last year.