Serhou Guirassy opened the scoring for the visitors with a well-placed header after 14 minutes.
After the break, Wolfsburg’s Joakim Mæhle pegged Stuttgart back with 50 minutes on the clock.
Guirassy notched his brace just four minutes later, before Josha Vagnoman scored his second goal of the season in the 78th minute.
Second-half substitute Lukas Nmecha made it 3-2 after 83 minutes, but it was ultimately a consolation goal for Wolfsburg.
The result means VfB Stuttgart have further strengthened their position in the hunt for a top-four spot in third place.
VfL Wolfsburg on the other hand, find themselves further from European qualification as their disastrous run of form continues.
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Niko Kovač may be on borrowed time
Wolfsburg’s current form is extremely alarming, and one could question why it has been allowed to go on for this long under current head coach Kovač.
Sporting Director Marcel Schäfer has publicly backed his head coach in the past, but a ninth game without a win will surely be seen as a step too far.
The way in which previous head coaches Oliver Glasner, Florian Kohfeldt and Mark van Bommel left the club could be an indicator as to why Wolfsburg may be willing to persist with the Croatian in the hopes of establishing a sense of stability.
Kovač’s arrival in May 2022 coincided with a respectable eighth-placed finish, narrowly missing out on Europa Conference League qualification.
Though a cliché, second season syndrome seems to have struck the club hard, and a mid-table finish seems to be the only thing that is attainable between now and the end of the season.
Kohfeldt led Wolfsburg to a 12th-placed finish, that was deemed ultimately not good enough.
When you compare the club’s ambitions with their current position and disastrous form, a coaching change may be afoot in Wolfsburg.
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Guirassy’s brace fires Stuttgart one step closer to a top-four finish
Serhou Guirassy has been absent through two injuries and missed a chunk of domestic action while on international duty with Guinea, but the 27-year-old has still managed to score 20 Bundesliga goals.
Harry Kane leads the race for the Torjägerkanone with 27 goals for Bayern Munich.
Guirassy is in second place and may well have been closer to Kane’s tally, if not for the reasons previously mentioned.
Stuttgart’s Topspiel win ensures Borussia Dortmund and RB Leipzig, who both won their matches this week, don’t close the gap.
Hoeneß’ side are now six points clear of Dortmund (44) and seven points from Leipzig (43). Remarkably, Stuttgart’s points tally (50) is closer to Bayern’s in second (54).
Stuttgart are also in much better form, having just gone six games unbeaten.
While there is still a lot of football to be played, Stuttgart are very well-placed to finish in a Champions League position, in what has been a truly outstanding season from Hoeneß and his side.
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Wolfsburg are a mystery this season
Die Wölfe came into this season full of aspiration to qualify for Europe, but it appears to be well out of reach now.
The side from the Autostadt are winless in nine games, with their last win and clean sheet coming against SV Darmstadt in December.
The sale of Micky van de Ven to Tottenham Hotspur gave Wolfsburg a sizable amount of money to reinvest in their team, which already had established players such as Jonas Wind.
Highly-rated Croatian international Lovro Majer was signed from Rennes, and Vaclav Cerny arrived from FC Twente, for example.
Combined with a coach of Kovač’s reputation from previous spells at Bayern Munich and particularly Eintracht Frankfurt, it seemed like Wolfsburg were set to build on last season’s progress.
But, it has been the opposite. Wolfsburg are languishing in thirteenth place, as their season continues to stagnate.
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Maximillian Mittelstädt impresses once again for VfB
Mittelstädt is indicative of Stuttgart’s change in recruitment policy that was engineered at the start of this season.
Stuttgart made smart signings, slowly but surely putting the pieces together to form a unit handcrafted for Hoeneß’ system.
Brought in for free, he arrived as a player who had a lot of potential, but whose development had stalled at Hertha Berlin.
Mittelstädt replaced Borna Sosa who departed for Ajax, and arrived with little to no expectation of producing what he has this season.
The 26-year-old has two goals and three assists, the latest of which came against Wolfsburg.
It was an excellent ball, perfectly weighted from the left flank, leaving Guirassy to nod home the opener.
The former Hertha man and Chris Führich have forged an excellent combination down the flanks.
With shades of Alejandro Grimaldo and Florian Wirtz at Bayer Leverkusen, there is a reason the two sides are the standouts from this Bundesliga campaign.
Much like the Swabians as a whole this season, no one could have expected Mittelstädt to hit the ground running quite so well.