Just when it looked as though Wasps needed to punch the accelerator even to keep pace with the league leaders, the former champions put in one of those performances they sometimes seem to save for Gloucester. Five tries - two of them for their England second-row Tom Palmer - fashioned a win that propelled them within touching distance of third place.

Wasps had gone into yesterday's game on the back of three successive league defeats with a grudge, believing that poor refereeing had caused the last dispiriting defeat against Northampton on Friday night - when freezing fog had given Gloucester an extra day off.

According to Ian McGeechan, that sense of injustice gave Wasps the edge and inspired a performance from Palmer which the director of rugby described as his best since he signed in the summer.

In a manic first 15 minutes, however, it was Joe Worsley who laid down a marker for the man-of-the-match award. First he made two try-saving tackles on Mike Tindall and Luke Narraway, then he produced the inspiration to set Wasps on their way, cropping up among the backs to draw his man before creating the overlap for Paul Sackey with a perfectly timed pass to Mark van Gisbergen.

Palmer's first try, in the 27th minute, came from an orthodox catch-and-drive, but the second was an altogether more adventurous affair, involving a charged-down kick and a 20-yard dart to the line. At 19-0 that was virtually game, set and match to Wasps, Gloucester limping off to a half-time rant from their director of rugby, Dean Ryan. "I don't think that was the best 40 minutes you have seen from Gloucester this season," he said afterwards. "We got into a black hole we couldn't get out of."

None the less he managed to coax something extra out of his players. True, Phil Vickery had limped off after 30 minutes - McGeechan said the trouble was a bruised backside and nothing to do with his long-standing back problems - and Tom Voyce picked up a yellow card after the break, but the introduction of James Forrester led to the try of the match. The replacement No8 made a classic blindside break at pace to set up Rory Lawson.

Anthony Allen got a second for Gloucester but Voyce and James Haskell ended any sniff of a comeback to leave the visitors still looking for their first win at Adams Park. "We didn't look like the side that had had a couple of days' extra rest," said Ryan.

Wasps Van Gisbergen; Sackey, Waldouck, Lewsey, Voyce; King (capt; Cipriani, 76), Amor (Reddan, 59); Payne, Ibañez (Ward, 68), Vickery (Bracken, 32); Purdy, Palmer; Leo (Dallaglio, 64), O'Connor (Haskell, 64) Worsley.

Tries Sackey. Palmer 2, Voyce, Haskell. Cons King 3, Cipriani.

Sin-bin Voyce, 43

Gloucester Balshaw; Simpson-Daniel, Tindall, Allen, Foster (Morgan, 73); Walker (Lamb, 52), Richards (Lawson, 52); Collazo (Nieto ,49), Azam, Califano; Bortolami (capt), Brown; Buxton, Hazell, Narraway (Forrester, 49).

Tries Lawson, Allen. Con Lamb

Sin-bin Nieto, 66

Referee W Barnes (Surrey). Attendance 10,000