Mainz took advantage of a Borussia Dortmund slip-up to move back to the top of the Bundesliga with a 1-0 win over Bayer Leverkusen on Sunday.
Only promoted two seasons ago, Mainz have made a terrific start to the 2010/11 Bundesliga season with a win away at Bayern Munich a highlight of their campaign.
They continued to surprise on Sunday, sending more than 30,000 Leverkusen fans at the BayArena home disappointed as Andreas Ivanschitz scored the game's only goal for the visitors after 70 minutes.
Dortmund were poor at home against Hoffenheim and needed an injury-time equaliser from Antonio Da Silva to snare a point.
Luiz Gustavo set up Demba Ba for Hoffenheim's 10th-minute opener and Da Silva's late equaliser spared Nuri Sahin's blushes after the midfielder missed a 15th-minute penalty.
In the day's other match, Stuttgart recorded a much-needed win to climb out of the relegation with a 2-0 home triumph over St Pauli.
Georg Niedermeier and Zdravko Kuzmanovic scored the goals for the hosts in front of nearly 45,000 fans in Stuttgart.