It always felt as though only a win would be enough to keep some life in the tattered remains of Leverkusen’s title defence, but they certainly did their bit in the 13th minute, when some slick movement down the right saw Nathan Tella square first time for Patrik Schick to charge forward and put a rocket of a shot past Finn Dahmen.
That made it successive goal-scoring matches for the Czech striker, while extending Augsburg’s wait to notch a record-breaking 12th Bundesliga clean sheet in a single season.
Augsburg rallied slightly, but Leverkusen were clearly eager to make no further additions to drop points from a lead for an eighth time this campaign.
Tella in particular embodied that, and appeared to turn goalscorer just over 10 minutes later, tapping in at the far post from an Alejandro Grimaldo cross, but a VAR-backed offside call cut his celebrations quickly.
And there was also unwelcome, but not unexpected, news from Munich, as Bayern took the lead in their clash with Mainz to restore their eight-point cushion over Die Werkself.
Regardless, Leverkusen remained on top and doubled their lead in first-half stoppage time, as Emiliano Buendia unleashed a powerful drive into the bottom-right corner of Dahmen’s net from outside the box.
That drastically changed the imminent team talk for both sides, but neither manager made a change at half-time, and the usual flow continued with Florian Wirtz coming close to putting the result beyond all doubt just five minutes after the restart, when he fired from outside the box and forced Dahmen to divert the ball away low to his left.
At long last, Augsburg woke up and created a few genuine chances. Danger man Samuel Essende had one of the better ones, but saw an effort inside the box drift just wide.
Having seen his last six goals come on the road, Alexis Claude-Maurice was also expected to make an impact, and he came much closer to halving the deficit, forcing Matej Kovar into an impressive save with a volley from mid-range.
Phillip Tietz should then have done better at the end of a Cedric Zesiger inswinger into the area, but he could only head straight at Kovar.
Beyond Tietz’s header, Leverkusen regained some of their former composure, and Jonas Hofmann should have done better in front of goal at the other end 10 minutes from time, rather than sending the ball just wide.
But as it transpired, Leverkusen’s dominant first half was enough to ensure that the title ‘race’ will at least continue into next week.
However, Leverkusen could still play their next match on Sunday week as deposed champions - and will do if Bayern Munich can win at RB Leipzig the day before.
Flashscore Man of the Match: Nathan Tella (Bayer Leverkusen)