The Spanish giants started in confident form and Luis Figo opened the scoring from the penalty spot on 35 minutes after Roberto Carlos had been felled by a flying tackle from Mallorca's Guillermo Pereyra.

However, the visitors silenced the Santiago Bernabeu when they equalised against the run of play seven minutes later.

Alejandro Campano managed to guide a free kick from 25 yards around the Real wall and past goalkeeper Iker Casillas.

Campano also scored last season when Mallorca beat Real 3-2 in the Bernabeu.

However, Mallorca were reduced to 10 men after 65 minutes when Mark Iuliano got his second yellow card and marching orders after a vicious tackle on Roberto Carlos and the tide turned back in Madrid's favour.

They piled on the pressure and Walter Samuel put Madrid back in front after 76 minutes, with Santiago Solari getting Madrid's third three minutes into injury time.

Real are second with 41 points from 20 games but still seven points behind league leaders and bitter rivals Barcelona, who beat Racing Santander 3-0 on Saturday with goals from Samuel Eto'o, Ronaldinho and Deco.

"We are back to playing at a good level. There was nothing lucky about this victory," said Barca coach Frank Rijkaard.

The odds on third-placed Valencia retaining their Spanish title lengthened on Sunday after the reigning champions went down 3-1 at local rivals Villarreal to leave them 12 points behind Barcelona.

Villarreal's Argentine international Juan Roman Riquelme was the man who did the damage with a hat-trick.

Riquelme got the opener from the penalty spot after 17 minutes and then added a second a minute before half time, going past two Valencia defenders before finding the net.

Valencia fought back and hit the bar twice from efforts by Pablo Aimar and Stefano Fiore but eventually they got a goal three minutes into injury time, Aimar scoring from the spot after Gonzalo Rodriguez had brought him down.

However, it took just a few seconds for Riquelme to restore Villarreal's two goal advantage with another penalty.

Straight from the kick off Villarreal rushed down the field which caused Carlos Marchena to panic and bring down Santi Cazorla in the box.

"We knew Villarreal were on form and they proved it again," said Valencia coach Claudio Ranieri after his team's first defeat in 11 games.

Sevilla maintained their ambitions of a place in the Champions League with a 2-0 win at struggling Albacete to move them up to fourth.

First half goals from Renato and Antonito Ramiro got Sevilla three valuable away points.

Espanyol slipped back a place to fifth after they were thrashed 4-1 at Deportivo La Coruna.

Deportivo took a 2-1 lead into the break and extended their advantage just after the hour when Diego Tristan scored from the penalty spot, after being hacked down by Mauricio Pochettino.

The challenge earned the veteran Argentine defender a red card and, down to 10 men, Espanyol were on the back foot and Juan Carlos Valeron finished off Deportivo's scoring spree 10 minutes from time.