The Spanish giants now have 50 points from 20 games and retained their seven-point lead over rivals Barcelona who beat Racing Santander 1-0.

“It wasn’t spectacular but we did what was necessary. We had to suffer for much of the game but in the end we had a winning formula,” admitted Real coach Bernd Schuster.

“What made me happy was that unlike on Wednesday (when Real lost to Real Mallorca 1-0 for a shock Cup defeat at home) we made the most of our chances.

“We might only have had two in the first half but we scored two goals. It wasn’t a lucky victory. In the second half, they didn’t have a good chance to score and we almost got a third.”

Raul got Real off to the best possible start by finding the net after just 32 seconds, with Atletico leaving him unmarked to side foot the ball into the net from two metres after Robinho had done the hard work down the left.

Atletico immediately went on the attack to try to get back on level terms and relentlessly kept the pressure on for the next 40 minutes.

Thiago Motta put a header against the bar, Raul Garcia forced an outstanding save from Real goalkeeper Iker Casillas and Kun Aguero saw a sizzling shot from the edge of the are also skim the bar.

However, against the run of play, Real added a second when van Nistelrooy got his 12th goal of the season four minutes before the break.

The Dutchman was on target after a corner from his compatriot Wesley Sneijder.

Atletico goalkeeper Christian Abbiati succeeded in getting a hand to the left foot effort but he could only push the ball onto the post and it rebounded into the net.

The Spanish headlines in the coming days are likely to be about Real’s two goalscorers but huge credit should also go to Casillas who kept a clean sheet for the sixth consecutive league game.

Atletico now lie in fourth place, 13 points off the lead, and have not won a derby clash with Real in front of their own fans since October 1999.

Barcelona’s Thierry Henry got the only goal of a tepid game after 31 minutes to leave visitors Racing cursing the fact that they ended up without a point.

Henry can thank the luckless Racing defender Cesar Navas, who badly miscued his clearance following a Deco corner, for his sixth goal of the season and his team’s three points.

The Frenchman was on hand to tap the spinning ball into the net from close range after Navas’ slice ended up at his feet.

Barca looked unimpressive until Lionel Messi came on after 66 minutes for his first game in a month after recovering from a torn left thigh muscle.

Goals from Robert Pires, Joan Capdevila and Nihat Kahveci helped Villarreal to an emphatic 3-0 victory over local rivals Valencia on Saturday. The win meant Villarreal move up to third.