QPR were head and shoulders above a poor Colchester side from first to last.
The Essex side rarely mounted an attack worthy of the name and Rangers should have scored a hatful to cement their second place in the table.
Colchester had one shot on target, and that straight at the keeper by Thomas Pinault in the first half, bore witness to the one way traffic.
As early as fourth minute Richard Langley won the ball in midfield, charged forward and let fly from 25 yards and Simon Brown could only parry before the ball was cleared to safety.
Karl Connolly then connected with a first time cross from Tom Williams after good work by Kevin Gallen, but could only hook his shot over the bar.
Matt Rose managed to do the same thing after 23 minutes, but there was no stopping Connolly's wonderful individual effort that broke the deadlock.
The man-of-the-match picked up the ball just inside his own half to weave his way through the defence and fire a low right foot shot into the corner from 18 yards.
In the second half Rangers kept up the barrage and Williams and Connolly combined cleverly to feed Gallen, who shot against the base of the post with Brown grateful to grab the rebound at the second attempt.
Then in an amazing bust up Carlisle and Langley shoved and pushed each other in their own box after Carlisle's miss-kick nearly gave the U's an unlikely equaliser.
The in-house feud continued until a word from the referee calmed things down.
Any chance of a Colchester goal disappeared as Bobby Bowry slammed a low cross against his own upright, quickly followed by Gallen's clincher.
A quick ball out of defence saw three against two and Connolly had all the time in the world to pick out an unmarked Gallen, who's low drive from 15 yards comfortably beat Brown