Stuttgart have defeated Schalke 3-1 at home to climb up to fifth in the Bundesliga.
The home side took the lead as early as the second minute when Vedad Ibisevic turned in Ibrahima Traore's cross from close range.
Ten minutes later Schalke restored parity, as Ciprian Marica got at the end of a Jermaine Jones cross to shot home from the centre of the Stuttgart penalty box.
However, the visitors regained their one-goal advantage in the 38th minute when Christian Fuchs's challenge on Ibisevic saw the referee award them a penalty.
Ibisevic himself stepped up to take the spot kick and made no mistake from 12 yards.
Klaas-Jan Huntelaar almost pulled Schalke level on the stroke of half-time but saw his left-footed shot miss the target.
Arthur Boka failed to keep his shot from outside the Schalke box on target in the early minutes of the second half, before Ibisevic headed Raphael Holzhauser's cross just wide.
Ibisevic completed his hat-trick just after the hour mark when he fired in from close range.
Stuttgart went down to 10 men in the 67th minute when Gotoku Sakai was shown a straight red card for a dangerous challenge on Lewis Holtby.
However, Schalke failed to take advantage of their numerical advantage as Jones was dismissed in the 73rd minute for the Royal Blues.
Subhankar Mondal
