Messi effectively ended the contest within the first 15 minutes with two easy finishes before completing his hat-trick after the break to take his tally to 12 goals in 10 games since returning from knee ligament damage in November, while Neymar completed the rout late on.
The European champions lead Atletico Madrid, who travel to Celta Vigo on Sunday, by a point and are now five clear of Real Madrid.
Real begin a new era under Zinedine Zidane later on Saturday when they host Deportivo la Coruna at the Santiago Bernabeu.
Messi is expected to beat off teammate Neymar and current holder Cristiano Ronaldo
to the Ballon d'Or on Monday after leading Barca to a second treble of
La Liga, Champions League and Copa del Rey in six years last season.
And despite the fine form of Neymar and Luis Suarez
in his two-month absence, Messi again demonstrated he is Barca's main
man as Luis Enrique's men bounced back from drawing three of their last
four La Liga games.
"He is a
unique and unrepeatable player," said Enrique, who won't attend Monday's
ceremony in Zurich despite being nominated himself for coach of the
year.
"It is evident there is the collective objective that attracts him, motivates him and continues to motivate him year after year.
"Then
there is the particular individual objective these type of players have
to continue beating records and continue being the best."
Arda Turan
made his first league start for the hosts after Barca's year-long ban
from registering new players was lifted earlier in the week, and the
Turkish international provided his first assist for the club with a
lovely through ball for Messi to slot home after just eight minutes.
Barca's
all-star front three combined to perfection six minutes later as
Neymar's cross was helped first time by Suarez into the path of Messi to
roll past the helpless Andres Fernandez.
The
hosts should have been much further clear by half-time than 2-0 as
Suarez inexplicably fired wide with the goal at his mercy after a neat
one-two with Neymar.
Fernandez
also produced a fine save to temporarily deny Messi his hat-trick
before Neymar drilled a volley into the side-netting.
The
Brazilian was frustrated again just before the hour mark when he fired
against the post from a narrow angle, but Messi followed up to complete
his hat-trick.
Neymar finally
got his goal seven minutes from time when Messi cleverly let Suarez's
cross roll across the area knowing he was in an offside position and
Neymar took his time before blasting the ball into the roof of the net
for his 18th goal of the season.
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