The race for the Super League leaders' shield will go down to the wire after Warrington closed the gap on Wigan to a single point with an emphatic 30-10 win at the Halliwell Jones Stadium.
The in-form Wolves dominated from start to finish against strangely out-of-sorts opponents as they completed the Super League double over Wigan for the second successive season.
The Warriors will still lift the league leaders' shield currently residing at the Halliwell Jones Stadium if they win their last three games of the regular season but Warrington are ready to seize on any further slip.
The Wolves are already favourites to win the Challenge Cup - they take on Leeds in a fortnight - and the impressive triumph will give them a psychological advantage if these two rivals meet in the Grand Final.
Warrington's rampaging forwards, superbly led by Ben Westwood and Chris Hill, laid the platform for a blistering start which brought them two tries in the first seven minutes.
Wolves' evergreen stand-off Lee Briers marked his 400th appearance by setting up the game's first try. The former skipper, who this week signed a new contract for 2013, seized on the first of a series of handling errors by the visitors and was only denied a try by a superb last-ditch tackle by Wigan centre George Carmont.
However, the Warriors' defence were not able to regroup in time to prevent Westwood crossing wide out for the game's opener. The leaders had not recovered from that shock when Hill bumped off Lee Mossop's attempted tackle to get loose forward Ben Harrison over for a second try and Brett Hodgson's second goal made it 12-0.
Wigan pulled a try back nine minutes before half-time when second-rower Gareth Hock forced his way over from a tap penalty five metres out. Josh Charnley's goal cut Warrington's lead to six points but it was back up to 10 by half-time when Joel Monaghan took Hodgson's clearly forward pass to grab a third try in fortuitous fashion.
Hodgson extended his side's lead with a penalty and converted an 80-metre try from centre Stefan Ratchford, who collected a wayward kick from Wigan scrum-half Matty Smith and showed a clean pair of heels to his pursuers.
Warrington's errors were few and far between but, when Briers failed to find touch with a penalty, Wigan took advantage to create an overlap, with Carmont sending Iain Thornley over for a try. But Warrington duly extended their lead when scrum-half Richie Myler took Michael Monaghan's pass to cross for a fifth try and Hodgson kicked his fifth goal.
