Tommy Fleetwood one off lead at halfway stage of Open de France

Tommy Fleetwood remains just one off the lead heading into the weekend at the weather-affected Open de France.

The Englishman posted a three-under 68 to stay in touch with midway pacesetters Adrian Otaegui and Peter Uihlein, after thunderstorms saw play delayed by over two hours at Le Golf National.

Otaegui recovered from a bogey on the second to make a five-under 66 and set the clubhouse target at eight under, which Uihlein matched late in the evening with a second successive 67.

Fleetwood birdied the first on his way to reach the turn in 35 and added further gains at the 11th and 14th, but failed to make any further inroads when coming back out to complete his final three holes.

"It always quite tricky when you have to go back out," Fleetwood said. "It was a shame because I felt like I had a lovely rhythm again today.

"It's nice to finish this evening, rather than getting up early tomorrow morning and coming back and having to wait if I finished all right."

Alexander Björk held a share of the advantage before the stoppage but bogeyed his penultimate hole to join Fleetwood on seven under, with overnight leader Paul Waring part of the group a further shot back.

Waring cancelled out two birdies in his first five holes by finding the water and racking up a double-bogey at the first, with another blemish at the fourth seeing him sign for a one-over 72.

Thomas Pieters joins Ross Fisher and Graeme Storm inside the top-10 on five under, while top seed Jon Rahm carded a two-under 69 to stay within five strokes of the lead.

English trio Tyrrell Hatton, Matt Fitzpatrick and Danny Willett all suffered early exits, with last week's BMW International Open winner Andres Romero second-bottom of the leaderboard after shooting an 82.

This week's event is the latest in The Open Qualifying Series, with three players in the top 10 and ties who aren't already exempt for next month's major booking their spot at Royal Birkdale.