Rory McIlroy is in mid-season form at the WGC-Mexico Championship as he leads by two shots, except this is his first tournament in nearly two months.

Teeing it up at this week's co-sanctioned PGA and European Tour event, McIlroy was expected to just get his feet wet in his first outing since mid-January due to a rib injury.

That has not been the case for the four-time major champion and former world number one. Instead of rust, McIlroy has shined brighter than anyone in the field, clear atop the leaderboard at the halfway stage on Friday.

After carding a second-round 65, McIlroy - who is also battling a stomach bug - said: "A little bit disappointed with the way I finished.

"But overall if you had told me at the start of the week that I would be leading by two going into the weekend, I definitely would have taken it.

"I've exceeded my expectations coming into the week. I would have liked to have said coming in here yeah, I'm going to just get straight back at it and contend for the win or whatever, but I'm sort of a bit more realistic than that."