Los Blancos cut Barcelona's lead back to one point at the top of the table after the Spanish champions beat Elche on Saturday.

Vinicius Junior scored early on for Madrid after Jude Bellingham limped off with an apparent hamstring injury.

Jorge de Frutos pulled Rayo level early in the second half as Madrid fans showed their anger at their team.

After Pathe Ciss's red card tilted the game in Madrid's favour, Mbappe netted from the spot at the death for his 22nd La Liga goal this season.

Pep Chavarria was also sent off in the final stages for Rayo, 17th, who took a shaky Madrid to the wire before falling short.

"It was a victory with a lot of heart, a lot of soul, the Bernabeu pushed us on against a team that always creates a lot of problems for us," coach Alvaro Arbeloa told Real Madrid TV.

After the hosts' defeat at Benfica in midweek which forced them into the Champions League play-off round, the Santiago Bernabeu crowd was in unforgiving mood.

Arbeloa and Mbappe had begged fans to support the team but, just as they did a fortnight ago against Levante, they whistled their own players.

Former Barcelona winger Ilias Akhomach fired narrowly wide early on -- the atmosphere would have been further soured had his effort crept inside Thibaut Courtois' post.

Madrid suffered an early setback as England international Bellingham pulled up holding the back of his thigh, going off in agony.

Vinicius fired the hosts ahead in the 15th minute, showing tidy footwork just inside the area before firing high over Augusto Batalla and into the net.

Arda Guler came close to getting a second, with Batalla saving his effort and Vinicius turning the rebound wide.

Los Blancos were in charge but despite taking the lead, their fans were not appeased, and whistled the team in at the break.

Four minutes into the second half Rayo pulled level. Alvaro Garcia nodded a cross down for De Frutos, a former Madrid youth player, to reach and drill home.

The visitors should have taken the lead after an hour when Andrei Ratiu ran through on goal with only Courtois to beat but the Belgian stopper made a superb save to deny him.

Mbappe came centimetres away from putting Madrid in front when Batalla rushed out of his goal, with the French forward knocking the ball around him but then hitting the bar from distance.

- Numerical advantage -

Rayo made life harder for themselves when midfielder Ciss was sent off for an ugly foul on Madrid's Dani Ceballos.

Eduardo Camavinga headed against the post as Arbeloa's side turned the screw, before nine minutes of stoppage time were added on.

With the clock ticking down Madrid were awarded a penalty when Nobel Mendy clumsily fouled Brahim Diaz, and La Liga's top scorer Mbappe dispatched it to snatch three points for his side.

Rayo finished the match with nine men after Chavarria was shown a second yellow card for shoving Rodrygo Goes.

"The first red card affected us a lot and in the end we couldn't take anything from here," De Frutos told DAZN.

Arbeloa said he was now looking forward to a fortnight without midweek games due to Madrid's early Copa del Rey exit.

"We've had a lot more games than training sessions, which are for recovering and can't be done at high intensity -- as a coach I've missed that time to work," said the coach.

"We'll use these two weeks to keep improving the team, individually and collectively."