Nine-try Bristol claimed their biggest Premiership win, by 54 points, as Northampton Saints crumbled to their record top-flight defeat.
Fin Smith’s penalty put Saints ahead, but Bears hit back with 27 unanswered first-half points as Harry Randall (2), Harry Thacker and Ioan Lloyd crossed.
But George Kloska, Fitz Harding and Jake Heenan all scored to give Bristol their third straight league win.
Northampton have conceded 514 points in the Premiership this season, the most by some distance, and the contrast was clear at the other end as the Bears cut through with concerning ease.
Randall sniped through a gap to cross as Bristol converted from their first visit to the Northampton 22, and Ratu Naugolo then raced over straight from the restart, but saw the score chalked off for Thacker’s forward pass.
Moments later, Thacker stretched over from close range for his seventh try of the campaign, and it was then three tries from three chances when Charles Piutau’s superb run from halfway and grubber kick sent Randall away to finish a scintillating break.
No-one has scored more second-half tries than Northampton this season with 42, but Bristol set the tone soon after the break when slick offloads and Piutau’s back-of the-hand pass sent Lloyd to the corner.
Order was soon restored when Kloska crashed over from close range and the relentless Bears passed the half-century when Harding finished off a James Williams break.
