Mladen Petric scored twice as Hamburg remained in the hunt for the Bundesliga title with a comfortable victory over Hannover.
Petric scored the opener after only 60 seconds and doubled the advantage in the 52nd minute for Hamburg. Mikael Forssell cut the deficit in half with a penalty in the 70th minute.
Martin Jol's Hamburg overtake Stuttgart to move into third place with 54 points - three points behind leaders Wolfsburg.
Hannover, meanwhile, remain winless on the road and have the worst record away from home with only two points. They stay in 13th place, six points clear of the relegation spots.
Hamburg grabbed the lead almost straight from the kick-off. Jerome Boateng sent a high diagonal cross to Petric, who struck a left-foot volley to the far right post from 11 yards.
The hosts nearly doubled the advantage 11 minutes later but Hannover keeper Robert Enke stopped Piotr Trochowski's close-range shot.
Arnold Jan Bruggink's 17-yard blast in the 13th minute flew just wide for Hannover before Petric hit the side-netting in the 40th and Gaetan Krebs shot over the Hamburg bar three minutes before the break.
Hamburg finally made it 2-0 seven minutes after the restart. Enke did a fine job stopping Jose Paolo Guerrero's blast from the left side but the ball rolled right into the path of Petric, who made no mistake.
Trochowski's high blast from the left wing sailed just wide of the right post in the 58th minute. And Jonathan Pitroipa appeared to be brought down in the area seven minutes later but the referee refused to point to the spot.
A penalty was awarded with 20 minutes to play as Guy Demel was ruled to have handled Bruggink's free-kick in the area. Forssell found the bottom corner as his kick stayed just out of the reach of Hamburg keeper Frank Rost, who had gone the right way.
Pitroipa had the ball in the net for Hamburg with 10 minutes to play but was ruled offside. And then David Jarolim shot wide from nine yards two minutes later as the hosts had to settle for two.
