Manchester, England: Queens Park Rangers was relegated from the Premier League on Sunday following a 6-0 loss at Manchester City as Sergio Aguero scored a hat trick.
The last-place London club's return to the second tier after one season was confirmed with two games still to play in the season.
"Everybody is very disappointed we've lost our status in the Premier League but knew coming here today it was going to be very, very difficult and we would have obviously rather performed better than that," QPR manager Chris Ramsey said. "The club's in a rebuilding phase now."
QPR seemed condemned after only four minutes when Aguero scored his first of three goals for City, which was dethroned as champions last week by Chelsea.
Aleksandar Kolarov, James Milner and David Silva also got on the scoresheet as rampant City, who hit the woodwork as well through Wilfried Bony, kept up its challenge for second place with a fourth successive win.
But the story of the afternoon was about QPR's troubles. Questions will now be asked about the future of manager Chris Ramsey and, perhaps more seriously, the club itself with the Football League over its Financial Fair Play status and potential huge fines.
Results on Saturday had sent QPR to the bottom of the table and needing to win to have any hope of survival, but the team's body language never seemed right.
The writing seemed on the wall in the opening minutes when Leroy Fer gave the ball away and Silva charged through a gap to release Aguero.
The Argentina striker's effort was blocked on this occasion but he made no mistake in the fourth minute when he burst through some poor tackling. He did get a lucky rebound off Matt Phillips but his finish from close range was clinical as he expertly dinked over goalkeeper Rob Green.
Aguero threatened again but could not quite get the ball under control, Pablo Zabaleta fired across goal, James Milner failed to get away a shot and Fernando drove wide as City dominated.
Charlie Austin did rattle the crossbar and power a header past City goalkeeper Joe Hart as the hosts twice switched off at the back, but the flag was up on both occasions.
City doubled its lead in the 32nd when dead-ball specialist Kolarov clipped a free kick over the wall and beyond Green.
QPR again showed its potential as Fer lobbed a shot onto the bar and Bobby Zamora followed up, but Hart got back to clutch his header.
But City's superiority was never in doubt and the hosts extended their lead after Yun Suk-young's blunder five minutes in the second half.
The Korean failed to make a routine interception as Silva sent a long ball forward and Aguero was quick to pounce, racing through on goal and giving Green no chance.
Green did react brilliantly to push a shot from Silva wide when the Spaniard broke clear soon after but he was soon picking the ball out of the net again as City was awarded a penalty.
Silva was bundled over by Phillips as the ball was lofted into the box and Aguero completed his hat trick in the 65th and took his tally for the season to 31 goals.
Things got even worse for QPR — and more embarrassing — as Milner tapped in City's fifth in the 70th. Substitute Bony, who replaced Frank Lampard, flicked on from a corner and Aguero supplied Milner with an easy finish.
Bony himself went close by forcing Green to save with his feet and then hitting the post.
Silva completed the humiliation three minutes from the end when he took Bony's backheel in his stride and calmly went round Green.
