Claudio Pizarro scored twice to give Bayern Munich a 2-1 win at home to Mainz and take the champions six points clear at the top of the Bundesliga yesterday.

Pizarro, whose late double gave Bayern victory over Arminia Bielefeld last weekend, fired in the opener in the 28th minute and clinched victory with a second-half header after Benjamin Auer had grabbed an unlikely equaliser.

Werder Bremen, missing leading strikers Miroslav Klose and Ivan Klasnic, suffered a 2-1 defeat at Schalke 04, with Kevin Kuranyi getting both goals for the home side.

Hamburg SV took advantage of Bremen's loss to climb into second place with a 1-0 win at Bayer Leverkusen.

With 14 games played, Bayern lead the standings with 37 points, followed by Hamburg on 31, Bremen on 29 and Schalke on 25.

Bayern, missing Michael Ballack through injury once again, made heavy weather of the game against a Mainz side battling to avoid the drop.

"It was an awkward match," said coach Felix Magath. "We should have scored several more goals to make the game safe. I was nervous right up until the end."

Dutch forward Roy Makaay got in behind the Mainz defence twice in the first quarter of an hour but first shot wildly over the bar and then crossed to no one in particular to waste two very good chances.

The Dutch international made amends when his well-timed run took him past the defence again. Makaay controlled Bastian Schweinsteiger's through ball on the left of the area and this time picked out Pizarro for a simple finish for the first goal.

Bayern apparently thought the game was won at that point and they became sloppier and sloppier as the first half wore on.

They were punished in the 34th minute when Auer received the ball just outside the area and was allowed time to come inside and thread a shot past Oliver Kahn.

Great cross

Schweinsteiger supplied a great cross for Peruvian international Pizarro to head Bayern back in front and Sebastian Deisler missed a great chance to make it 3-1 before Bayern slacked off again.

Kahn had to make a good save from Antonio da Silva as Mainz hit back.

Bremen were always likely to struggle against Schalke with both Klose and Klasnic recovering from operations and coach Thomas Schaaf must have been furious when a poor back-pass from Naldo gifted Kuranyi the opening goal in the second minute.

Bremen equalised early in the second half when Patrick Owomoyela flicked on a corner and set up Nelson Valdez with an easy header.

Kuranyi's second, after Levan Kobiashvili's shot had been beaten away, put Ralf Rangnick's improving side back in front and Bremen hopes of a second equaliser were hit when Torsten Frings was sent off with nine minutes to go.

The match between Duisburg and Cologne was called off because of a snow.