Hamburg and Bayer Leverkusen picked up victories this afternoon to remain clear at the Bundesliga summit.

Meanwhile while Bayern Munich signalled their season was ominously back on track with a 5-1 triumph at Borussia Dortmund.

Mladen Petric put HSV ahead on the half-hour and Eljero Elia doubled their advantage just before the hour in the late kick-off against Stuttgart.

Pavel Pogrebniak pulled one back for the visitors four minutes later but Ze Roberto made it 3-1 in stoppage time.

An even contest at the Volkswagen Arena, meanwhile, was tipped in Leverkusen's favour after 31 minutes when Wolfsburg goalkeeper Diego Benaglio saw red for a professional foul on Eren Derdiyok, and the visitors soon capitalised when Simon Rolfes opened the scoring.

Rolfes doubled his tally from the penalty spot after 51 minutes but the dismissal of Derdiyok for a second yellow card two minutes later gave the champions heart.

Stefan Kiessling quickly extinguished that hope as he hit Leverkusen's third, although late goals from Zvjezdan Misimovic (76) and Grafite (80, penalty) meant the visitors endured some nervy moments before the final whistle sounded.

Louis van Gaal's Bayern had made their worst start to a Bundesliga season in 43 years before their 3-0 triumph over Wolfsburg last time out.

And they came from behind to make it two wins in a row at the Westfalen Stadion.

Mats Hummels gave the home side a deserved lead in the 10th minute, but Bayern levelled, somewhat fortunately, 10 minutes before the break thanks to Mario Gomez.

Bastian Schweinsteiger, Franck Ribery and a brace from Thomas Muller then earned a transformed Bayern all three points to take them back into the upper echelons of the standings.

Elsewhere, Hertha Berlin crashed to their fourth consecutive league defeat after conceding twice inside the final 10 minutes to go down 2-1 at Mainz.

Maximilian Nicu put Lucien Favre's side ahead five minutes into the second half but things turned sour late on.

The hosts were awarded a penalty which was duly dispatched by Andreas Ivanschitz and the capital club's desperate start to the season got worse when Ivorian striker Aristide Bance struck a winner five minutes from time.

Chinedu Obasi's solo effort was the highlight of a fine Hoffenheim performance as they overpowered Bochum 3-0.

The Nigeria forward strode through the visiting defence to claim Hoffenheim's second just short of the hour mark after Demba Ba had given them a first-half lead.

Marvin Compper rounded off the scoring nine minutes from time to give the hosts their second league win of the campaign.

Eintracht Frankfurt made it five Bundesliga games unbeaten with a 2-0 victory at Freiburg thanks to two second-half goals.

Michael Skibbe's side took the lead through Maik Franz and Alexander Meier made sure of the points in stoppage time.

Finally, Peer Kluge scored the only goal early in the first half as Nurnberg soaked up the pressure to defeat Borussia Monchengladbach 1-0.