Bayern Munich enjoyed their very own Super Saturday after a 2-0 win over Karlsruhe and a crushing defeat for their closest pursuers Werder Bremen left Ottmar Hitzfeld's side seven points clear.
Bayern dominated Karlsruhe, the sixth-placed club who have emerged as the surprise package of the season with Italian World Cup winner Luca Toni and Frank Ribery securing the points.
The France international's 65th minute effort was one to savor as he slalomed through the defense before nutmegging a defender for his sixth goal of the season and his third in the last 10 days.
"He was everywhere, he's impressive, a player like that can make the difference all by himself," Karlsruhe captain Maik Franz marveled.
Ribery, who signed for a Bundesliga record of 26 million euros (US$39.9 million), has played himself into the hearts of the Bayern fans after a scintillating first season since arriving from Marseille.
His fine display against Karlsruhe came on the back of equally impressive performances against city rivals 1860 in the German Cup and Thursday's 5-0 UEFA Cup romp over Anderlecht.
Bayern keeper Oliver Kahn will have been relieved to keep a clean sheet on a return to the club where his long career began back in 1987.
Vfb Stuttgart did Bayern a huge favor by seeing off Werder Bremen 6-3 on a day which could very easily emerge as the turning point of the campaign.
Yet Kahn injected a note of caution to anyone who believed that, the German veteran insisting: "It's too early to say that."
Stuttgart, the inconsistent defending champions, picked holes in Werder's defense with German international Mario Gomez scoring a hat-trick to compound a bad week for the visitors who were beaten by Rangers in the UEFA Cup on Thursday.
This painful defeat will have been hard to take for Werder, who had opened the scoring.
This was Werder's sixth loss of the season and it left them on 43 points to Bayern's 50.
Schalke 04, on a high after qualifying for the Champions League quarter-finals this week, ended a run of three-straight league defeats with a 2-0 win at Arminia Bielefeld to go fifth, 12 points adrift of the top.
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