Cristiano Ronaldo netted twice to continue his fine goalscoring streak as Real Madrid thrashed Alaves for a fifth win in a row in all competitions.

He had the chance to score a hat-trick when Real won a late penalty, but instead let Karim Benzema step up to score a morale-boosting fourth La Liga goal of the season.

Benzema set up the first two goals, backheeling to Ronaldo and then playing in Gareth Bale after the break.

Lucas Vazquez set up Ronaldo's second.

The Portugal forward has now scored eight goals in his past four Real appearances, and 299 in the Spanish top flight.

Bale was impressive in only his second start in five games, hitting the crossbar and winning the late penalty. His goal came 28 seconds after the restart, Real's quickest second-half goal since 2004.

Third-placed Real move to within 11 points of Barcelona for now, with the leaders playing Girona at 19:45 GMT.