Madrid: Gareth Bale scored twice as Real Madrid recovered from two consecutive league defeats to beat Rayo Vallecano 5-0 on Saturday.
Atletico Madrid remain top of La Liga as they came from behind away to beat Athletic Bilbao 2-1, while Barcelona rounded off a fine week by overcoming stiff resistance from local rivals Espanyol to win 1-0 thanks to a late Lionel Messi penalty.
Victory for all three title contenders means that Atletico maintain their one point lead over Barcelona with Real a further two points adrift in third.
Bale also teed up Cristiano Ronaldo to open the scoring at the Bernabeu as the Portuguese continued his run of scoring in each of his last 10 games for club and country by bursting past two Rayo defenders before slotting low into the corner.
Karim Benzema then failed to connect with an open goal to aim at and Bale also passed up a huge chance as he kicked the ground when attempting to chip Ruben Martinez.
Dani Carvajal eventually made the game safe when he registered his first goal for the club from Ronaldo’s cut-back 10 minutes after half-time.
Bale then took over as he tapped home Angel di Maria’s unselfish cross to slot home his 16th goal of the season to make it 4-0.
And Alvaro Morata rounded off the rout with a fine curling effort 12 minutes from time.
“We reacted well after two defeats,” said Real boss Carlo Ancelotti. “We played well and our attitude was good, which will serve us well for the next game.”
