Celtic; who was reduced to ten men during the game scored nine goals without reply to lift them above City rivals Glasgow Rangers in a thriller at Parkhead.
The rout was started off by a Stokes spot kick on 26 minutes and by the time he added a second from the spot one minute into first half stoppage time the old firm club were four goals to the good.
They added a further five in the second half with Stokes completing his hat-trick with 16 minutes remaining - former Scunthorpe United striker Gary Hooper also netted a hat-trick in this game; incidentally the Hoops had only 16 shots on goal all game.