After a tough first-up victory over Sydney, the Hawks' speed and skill and overwhelmed the Bombers when it mattered in their 17.9 (111) to 12.13 (85) triumph in front of 80,735 fans at the MCG on Friday night.
Jai Newcombe (25 disposals, seven clearances) and Karl Amon (28 touches) were strong contributors and small forwards Nick Watson and Dylan Moore added three goals each.
But Jack Scrimshaw was left concussed and suffered facial injuries after a nasty head clash with teammate Josh Battle that somewhat soured the Hawks' first win over the arch-enemy in four years.
Hawthorn made their move early, kicking seven of the first eight goals in a scintillating start to put a buffer between the sides before resisting multiple Essendon surges.
They held their opponents at arm's length despite losing one-sided contested possession (149-126), clearance (50-31) and inside-50 (58-48) and tackle (75-58) counts.
"We lost a lot of statistics that say we shouldn't win that game," Hawthorn coach Sam Mitchell said.
"There's a lot of area that needs attention for us but we were able to kick 111 points and win the game.
"That part makes me happy, but with some of the underlying stuff we've got some work to do.
"We had enough of a lead to be able to hold them off but we had some key moments that were important.
"In seasons like this you're going to have to win some games where you lose some stats, but it's not sustainable to keep winning in that style."
Essendon's Jordan Ridley was also ruled out with concussion after he was caught high by Scrimshaw in an earlier incident and Kyle Langford (hamstring) failed to see out the match.
Jye Caldwell (36 disposals, 10 clearances) and Zach Merrett (26, four) fought hard for the Bombers, while Langford, Merrett and Xavier Duursma kicked two goals apiece.
Essendon's new cult hero Isaac Kako struck the opening blow of the night with the first goal of his career before Hawthorn hit back hard to lead by 27 points at quarter-time.
The margin ballooned to as much as 37 points early in the final term and while the Bombers wouldn't lie down, they couldn't get close enough to seriously threaten.
"We were beaten by a more efficient and probably at this stage classier side in terms of polish," Essendon coach Brad Scott said.
"I liked the fact that we never conceded but clearly there's a gap between the two sides at the moment.
"Effort, contest and ability to defend with effort was really good, but ability to defend against their class was certainly wanting in the first half."
