Bayern Munich's resurgence under Jupp Heynckes continued as they moved six points clear of Borussia Dortmund with a 3-1 victory in Der Klassiker.
Arjen Robben, Robert Lewandowski and David Alaba all scored as Bayern made it seven wins from seven in all competitions since Heynckes returned to be manager last month.
For the opener, James Rodriguez controlled Thiago Alcantara's cross on his chest and laid the ball back for Robben to cut inside and fire it into the top left corner. It was the Dutch winger's 93rd Bundesliga goal, making him Bayern's highest scoring foreigner.
Lewandowski scored with his heel from Joshua Kimmich's cross, as Julian Weigl's deflection gave Dortmund keeper Roman Burki no chance.
In the second half, Alaba's cross was intended for Lewandowski -- and the striker later claimed he got a touch to it -- but it entered the net anyway with Burki only able to help it on its way.
Dortmund, for whom Marc Bartra netted a late consolation, have now lost three of their previous four in the Bundesliga and are without a victory in the division since September.
They have conceded 12 times in those four games and slipped beneath RB Leipzig in the table heading into the international break.
Earlier, RB Leipzig hit back against Hannover to clinch a 2-1 win and move up to second., four behind Bayern.
The hosts bounced back from their defeat to Bayern Munich to win the battle between third and fourth. The victory took Leipzig two points clear of Borussia Dortmund and, with Peter Bosz's out-of-sorts sides taking on Bayern in the late kick-off, left them with a good chance of finishing the weekend in second spot.
Newly-promoted Hannover looked like they might be the ones to close the gap at the top when Jonathas broke the deadlock in the 56th minute, taking one touch to control a low cross from the right and then finishing smartly. But the hosts levelled with 20 minutes to go through Yussuf Poulsen's far-post tap-in and won it in the 80th minute when Emil Forsberg stretched superbly to reach a long ball and turn it across goal and Timo Werner stabbed it home.
Defeat for Hannover allowed Schalke to leapfrog them into fourth thanks to a 1-0 win at Freiburg, with Daniel Caligiuri scoring a 62nd-minute winner.
Freiburg dropped into the bottom three as Hamburg saw off 10-man Stuttgart 3-1.
The visitors got off to a terrible start when Dzenis Burnic was sent off for two bookings inside the opening 12 minutes and Aaron Hunt put Hamburg ahead eight minutes later.
Daniel Ginczek equalised from the spot 10 minutes into the second half, but two goals in the space of five minutes from Filip Kostic and Jann-Fiete Arp saw Hamburg home.
Jannik Vestergaard's 67th-minute equaliser earned a point for Borussia Monchengladbach in a 1-1 draw at home to Mainz, for whom Abdou Diallo opened the scoring.
Augsburg and Bayer Leverkusen also drew 1-1. Kevin Volland put Leverkusen ahead in the 47th minute, but Kevin Danso equalised two minutes later.