QPR have been relegated from the Premier League as a Sergio Aguero hat-trick saw them suffer a 6-0 thrashing at Manchester City on Sunday.

Chris Ramsey's men travelled to the Etihad Stadium knowing only a win would keep alive slim hopes of staying up, but that was never on the cards as second-placed City produced a ruthless performance.

It was a display typical of a desperate and tumultuous campaign for the London club and the deadlock was broken less than five minutes in courtesy of a superb solo goal from Aguero.

Aleksandar Kolarov made it 2-0 to Manuel Pellegrini's side in the 32nd minute as QPR's wall fell apart in the face of his free-kick before Aguero took advantage of more sloppy defending after 50 minutes.

Aguero's 65th-minute penalty, a James Milner tap-in five minutes later and a late David Silva effort piled on the misery for QPR, who were promoted via the Championship play-offs 12 months ago. 

QPR's defence wilted after just four minutes, Aguero given acres of space to surge through the midfield before bouncing off a Matt Phillips challenge and coolly lofting the ball over goalkeeper Robert Green.

The visitors displayed flashes of promise going forward, but City continued to dominate, Eliaquim Mangala unable to connect with a ball from Milner - who had earlier spurned a chance to double the lead from point-blank range - with the goal at his mercy.

And City were rewarded for their superiority when Kolarov curled a free-kick through a virtually non-existent QPR wall and beyond Green.

Only the reflexes of Green prevented Aguero from adding a third after the Argentina striker had been put through one-on-one.

City always looked shaky in defence, though, and were fortunate to see Leroy Fer's lob bounce back off the crossbar, with Bobby Zamora's header from the rebound well saved by Joe Hart.

But any hopes of a remarkable comeback were ended by the clinical Aguero, who capitalised after Yun Suk-young had miscontrolled a backwards pass by coolly slotting home City's third.

Silva was then denied by Green before the Spaniard was clumsily bundled over by Phillips, enabling Aguero to secure the match ball and net his 25th league goal with a confident penalty into the bottom-left corner.

The fifth came as Milner was presented with the simple task of converting from Aguero's ball across the face of goal.

Substitute Wilfried Bony struck the post and then sent Silva through to round Green and make it six with a clever backheel on the edge of the area.