Karim Benzema scored twice and Gareth Bale notched another for Real Madrid in a 4-1 thrashing of leganes on Saturday after Atletico Madrid crashed to defeat in la liga.
Benzema grabbed a second-half double and might have got his hat-trick had Sergio Ramos passed on the penalty he scored after a foul on Marco Asensio.
Atletico lost more ground on their city neighbours as they sank to a 2-0 defeat at Celta Vigo which coach Diego Simeone described as "a major wake-up call".
At the Santiago Bernabeu, Bale broke the deadlock with a smart half-volley, which was briefly cancelled out by leganes' Guido Carrillo, who converted his own spot-kick to ensure Thibaut Courtois' first Madrid contribution was to pick the ball out of his own net.
Rejuvenated under new coach Julen lopetegui and, perhaps, liberated by Cristiano Ronaldo's departure, Bale and Benzema impressed again. Bale has now scored three times and Benzema four from the first three la liga games of the season.
"The goals were down to the whole team." Real have also taken maximum points from their opening three fixtures in contrast to the same point last season when they were already five behind Barcelona.
Atletico coach Simeone said he "assumed responsibility" as his side went down to goals from Celta's Maximilian Gomez and Spain forward Iago Aspas.
"Celta played very well," conceded Simeone. "We didn't trouble them, they were sharp and obviously afterwards they knew how to defend their advantage. "We lacked precision with the chances we had, that's why we failed to score. "It's a major wake-up call, for me mainly because against Rayo we weren't good in the final 10 minutes... But I'm not worried, I'm calm."