The strong winds howled across the Auchenhowie pitches as both sides struggled to keep the ball in play at times, with the crowd on the terracing seeing more of the ball than the wingers.
It was the visitors who were making the most of the early exchanges with some long range shooting, which failed to trouble Scott Gallacher, until the 13th minute when good vision from Isa Bagci saw him find Andy Shinnie unmarked in the box, the international midfielder took the opportunity to drive a hard diagonal shot across Thomson and into the far corner to put Rangers one up.
The Light Blues almost made it two soon after when John Fleck broke through and set up the overlapping William McLachlan whose low drive took a deflection before being cleared off the line.
The Edinburgh side continued to be a threat in coming forward and Gallacher had to be on his toes to make a great diving save as Hearts maintained their policy of 'shoot on sight'.
The battle was being waged mainly in the middle of the park and 'Gers skipper Andy Shinnie joined Ross Hamilton, who had been booked earlier, in referee Andy McWilliam's notebook after he went through Ryan McGown in a tackle.
Shinnie, who seemed never to be off the ball, was again involved in the hosts next chance when he headed onto the bar from a corner.
The League Leaders extended their lead two minutes from the break after a high inswinging corner reached Danny Wilson standing at the far post and the big defender bundled the ball over the line.
Half Time - Rangers 2 Heart of Midlothian 0
It only took the home side a minute after the break to extend their lead further after Fleck laid the ball off to Thomas Kindbendiksen 20 yards out and the little Norwegian chipped a delightful shot past the despairing Thomson.
The midfield was still proving a hot bed of action and it was the turn of Steven Husband to find himself in the ref's notebook following a crude challenge on Andy Shinnie.
The match was still swinging from end to end with Isa Bagci firing inches over and Gallacher being kept busy by the visitors.
Ryan McGowan thought he had pulled one back for Hearts after 68 minutes but this was denied by Referee McWillaim following an earlier infringement.
Rangers looked to have the points all sewn up in the 71st minute when some clever wing play by Cypriot Giorgos Efrem saw him flight the ball across goal only for it to come off Ross Hamilton straight to Isa Bagci and the big Swedish Turk made no mistake from 2 yards out to put the Champions 4-0 up.
The young Jambos, to their credit, refused to give up and 5 minutes later a low hard driven corner across the box saw Madej Rapnik let fly with a thunderous drive across Gallacher to give the hard working Hearts side some consolation.
With 10 minutes remaining the visiting side showed some great skill as the impressive McGowan played a clever ball through to Scott Robinson who in turn found the overlapping Gary Glen and the substitute fired in a terrific shot with his first touch which gave Gallacher no chance as it bulged the net.
This gave the match even more of an edge as the boys in maroon fancied their chances of pulling off an almost impossible result but Scott Gallacher had other ideas and covered everything else coming his way.
The commitment on show never weaned and Sean Kelly became the fourth player of the afternoon booked after a two footed challenge on Efrem two minutes into the four added on for stoppages.
The Teams;
Rangers - Gallacher, McLachlan, Kinniburgh, Wilson, Harvey, Stirling, Kindbendiksen, Shinnie (Ness65), Bagci, Fleck, Efrem
Subs not used - Vaiculis, Little, Craig, Donald, Durie, McShea.
Heart of Midlothian - S. Thomson, Kelly, Hamilton, Balatoni, Rapnik, McGowan, Mulrooney (Robinson 54), Husband, Conway (Glen 54), Mearns (Copil 72), Visconte
Subs not used - D. Thomson, Wagner, Woods
Referee - Andrew McWilliam
Attendance - 83
© Iain McKee, 23rd February 2008