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Blake Austin scored a hat-trick of tries as Warrington thrashed Wakefield to move level on points with second-placed St Helens in Super League.

Tony King sent the Wire ahead and Austin padded out their lead with a powerful drive to the line.

Josh Charnley and Austin ran in either side of the break as Warrington took firm control of the game.

Ben Currie later scored having run almost the entire length of the pitch just before Austin touched down again.

Stefan Ratchford converted all six tries to make the final scoreline even more one-sided.

Warrington's victory lifts them into third place in a tight Super League table, while Wakefield remain ninth.

The match ended a weekend of fixtures at Warrington's Halliwell Jones Stadium, however no home fans were in attendance to see the Wire's victory, with games continuing to be played behind closed doors because of Covid-19.

Defeat for Wakefield means they have now won just twice from their past eight games and their performance did little to inspire confidence that they could turn their form around.

Wakefield were without Jay Pitts and Alex Walker, who were unavailable after contact with Catalans players who tested positive for coronavirus in last weekend's Challenge Cup tie.

Liam Kay and David Fifita were also missing for Trinity, with the latter missing out for refusing to wear a GPS tracker for Covid-19 protocols in the second half of last week's cup defeat.

Trinity's evening got worse when Innes Senior went over on his ankle prior to going into a tackle and Currie's sensational run-in and Austin's simplistic third capped off a match to forget for Chris Chester's side.

Warrington: Ratchford, Lineham, King, Charnley, Austin, Widdop, Hill, Clark, Cooper, Currie, Hughes, Clark, Mamo.

Interchanges: Philbin, Davis, Kibula, Ashton.

Wakefield: Tupou, Miller, Wood, Arona, Ashurst, Westerman, Batchelor, Jowitt, Croft, Hampshire, Navarrete, Gigot, Senior.

Interchanges: Kirmond, Green, Crowther, Tanginoa.

Referee: M. Griffiths.