Ronaldo Real hero

Real Madrid superstar Cristiano Ronaldo points to his right leg after scoring against Atletico Madrid during their Primera Liga encounter at the Vicente Calderon Stadium on Wednesday.Photo: AFP

A Cristiano Ronaldo hattrick fired Real Madrid to a 4-1 derby win at Atletico Madrid on Wednesday to restore their four-point cushion on Barcelona at the top of the Primera Liga.
Ronaldo opened after 25 minutes with Gustavo Falcao getting the equaliser for Atletico after 55 minutes before the Portuguese star wrapped up his hat-trick to make it 40 league goals for the season, one more than Lionel Messi.
Jose Callejon got the other goal for La Liga leaders.
Barcelona had moved to within a point of Real on Tuesday after a 4-0 win over Getafe, with six games now left including a meeting between the top two on April 21.
The game started off at a fast pace with both teams keen to attack from the off and it was Atletico, looking for their first derby win since 1999, who enjoyed the better early chances.
Brazilian playmaker Diego supplied Falcao whose shot was parried away by Iker Casillas in the Real goal on nine minutes and ten minutes later the Colombian was millimetres from connecting at close range to a Gabi Fernandez free-kick.
Real were struggling to make any impact when in the 25th minute Ronaldo stepped up to hit a free-kick from around 30 yards.
Thibaut Courtois in the Atletico goal did not react at all to the bending, dipping shot and could only watch as it nestled to his left in the corner of his net.
Karim Benzema then narrowly headed wide a Angel Di Maria cross on 32 minutes but it was Real Madrid who went into the half-time break the stronger team.
Within ten minutes of the restart however Atletico were level when Falcao evaded Sergio Ramos and Fabio Coentrao to powerfully head home an Adrian cross.
Ronaldo put Real back in control on 68 minutes with another swerving shot, this time from the left hand corner of the area, that again left Courtois helpless.
As the home team pushed forward the gaps appeared and Gonzalo Higuain won a penalty that Ronaldo converted before Callejon added the fourth with three minutes remaining.

RESULTS
Grenade 2 (Romero 2, Geijo 73) Athletic Bilbao 2
(Llorente 81, Susaeta 88)
Valencia 4 (Jonas 41, 77-pen, Jordi Alba 70, Pablo Hernandez 88) Rayo Vallecano 1 (Diego Costa 72)
Sporting Gijon 3 (Trejo 22,
Lora 74, Sangoy 84) Levante 2
(Valdo 16, Kone 63)
Atletico Madrid 1 (Falcao 55) Real Madrid 4 (Cristiano Ronaldo 25, 68, 83-pen, Callejon 88)