Mbappe hat-trick moves Madrid four points clear
Kylian Mbappe's first Real Madrid hat-trick moved Los Blancos four points clear at the LaLiga summit after they beat 10-man Real Valladolid 3-0 away from home.
Carlo Ancelotti's side took advantage of Atletico Madrid's slip-up earlier in the day after it was held at home by Villarreal, while Barcelona is in action against Valencia on Monday (AEDT).
Valladolid, however, started the brighter of the two sides at Estadio Municipal Jose Zorrilla, with Thibaut Courtois denying David Torres with a big stop early on.
But Madrid hit the front in the 30th minute when Mbappe combined brilliantly with Jude Bellingham before curling the ball past Karl Hein and into the bottom right-hand corner.
Los Blancos and Mbappe then doubled the lead 12 minutes after the break, with the Frenchman producing a near carbon copy of his opening goal after collecting Rodrygo's pass to finish a breathtaking counter-attack by the visitors.
Matters were made worse for bottom-club Valladolid late on when Mario Martin received his second yellow card for a poor challenge on Bellingham inside the penalty area.
The subsequent spot-kick was dispatched emphatically by Mbappe, whose stuttering run-up sent Hein the wrong way and concluded the scoring in the encounter.
Mbappe has now scored 22 goals in his first 32 games of a season for Madrid, something only Cristiano Ronaldo (five times) and Karim Benzema (four times) have managed since the 2013-2014 campaign.
The Frenchman netted his maiden treble for Madrid in just his 19th LaLiga match for the club, the fourth quickest to do so after Ruud van Nistelrooy, Gareth Bale and Emmanuel Adebayor.
