Goals from Dylan Levitt and Martin Boyle proved the undoing of the Light Blues as they once again left themselves with too much to do following the concession of an early goal.
All eyes will now turn towards Thursday’s UEFA Europa League quarter-final clash against Athletic Club for the Gers who will need to arrest their troubling home form quickly.
Barry Ferguson named two changes to his side for the visit of the Edinburgh outfit this afternoon, with Vaclav Cerny returning from injury and Jefte replacing Ridvan on the left-hand side of the defence.
Rangers began on the front foot and were keen to put Hibs under pressure from the outset as Cerny picked out Nico Raskin at the edge of the penalty area and the Belgian’s strike was comfortably collected by Jordan Smith in the visitors’ goal.
The unfortunate theme to the Light Blues in recent weeks has been the tendency to fall behind in matches and, on eight minutes, a familiar sense of déjà vu engulfed Ibrox.
John Souttar rose highest in the Gers penalty area to nod clear a long throw-in from the away side, but it landed only as far as Dylan Levitt whose touch and hit from 25 yards out squirmed underneath Jack Butland to give Hibs an early lead.
It was a goal against the run of play in the opening exchanges, yet it meant Rangers would need to come from behind once again if they were to collect all three points.
The away side settled into an effective shape out of possession in the following ten minutes, with Rangers carving out their best opportunity of the contest until that point just shy of the half-hour mark when Cerny and James Tavernier combined on the edge of the penalty to release Cyriel Dessers who was denied by the feet of Smith at his near post.
Indeed, the opportunity seemed to spark the hosts into life as Hamza Igamane turned creator two minutes to feed Dessers beyond the Hibs backline, but the Nigerian contrived to scoop his finish over the crossbar while under pressure from the backtracking Rocky Bushiri.
Tavernier was next to try his luck from a free-kick 30 yards from goal, although it was no trouble for Smith between the sticks as he watched the full-back’s curling effort dip onto the roof of the net.
A sweeping counter-attack six minutes before the interval brought the crowd to its feet as Cerny picked out Dessers in space, but the forward’s resulting effort sailed wildly off target.
The second half then began with Chris Cadden whipping a dangerous delivery across the face of goal that Martin Boyle almost connected with at full stretch. The onus was on Rangers to up the tempo.
Ferguson turned to his substitutes bench for inspiration just shy of the hour-mark as Nedim Bajrami replaced Cerny whose minutes were being managed ahead of Thursday’s clash in Europe.
Almost immediately the Albanian found Connor Barron in a dangerous pocket of space on the right-hand side of the penalty area whose driven cross towards the near post was hacked clear by Bushiri.
Bajrami then put on the afterburners to latch onto a pinpoint Raskin pass over the top of the Hibs defence five minutes later, racing clear before his left-footed strike cannoned agonisingly off the crossbar.
However, any momentum generated by the hosts was quickly quelled when Hibs doubled their advantage with just over 20 minutes remaining.
A hopeful pass from Jordan Obita deep inside his own half sliced through the heart of the Light Blues defence and was met by the speedy Boyle who hared through on Butland’s goal and slotted a confident finish under the Gers goalkeeper.
The Hibs forward was denied a quickfire second from a smart Butland stop moments later as the hosts were unable to muster the required response, as they were seven days ago on Tayside, to improbably turn the game on its head.
RANGERS: Butland, Tavernier, Sterling, Souttar, Jefte, Barron, Raskin, Diomande (Danilo, 74), Cerny (Bajrami, 58), Igamane (Hagi, 87), Dessers (Curtis, 87)
Subs not used: Kelly, Propper, Cortes, Balogun, McCausland
HIBERNIAN: Smith, Miller, Levitt (Moriah-Welsh, 83), Boyle (Gayle, 83), C. Cadden (O’Hora, 90), Iredale, Obita (Bowie, 61), Hoilett, Triantis, Bushiri, Kukharevych (Campbell, 61)
Subs not used: Bursik, Ekpiteta, Manneh, N. Cadden
REFEREE: Don Robertson