Having told a well-known magazine that he was looking forward to working with his new Piquet Sports team-mate in the build-up to the new GP2 season, Andreas Zuber may be reconsidering his words following a combative second race in Barcelona on Sunday.

Having seen two top three positions for Saturday's feature race translate into just a third for the Austrian after Pastor Maldonado stalled on pole, the Piquet Sports team was hoping that one, if not both, could make it into the points in the shorter sprint event, despite having to come from sixth and ninth on the grid respectively. Instead, the outfit was left with a mounting repair bill as any hint of friendship went out of the window in a series of contentious collisions between the pair.

Zuber didn't get away well in a chaotic start, and lost two places immediately – before then losing another to Maldonado on lap one. With the leaders breaking away at the front of the pack, the Austrian's frustration grew as he remained stuck behind his team-mate.

"I could have gone much faster, but wasn't able to get past him,” Zuber sighed, after the pair ran in tandem until lap 22, making contact on lap 18 with minor cosmetic damage to both cars.

At that point, Zuber's patience ran out, and he pulled a 'risky but fair' manoeuvre on the Venezuelan that left him sitting in sixth spot and holding a potential point to go with the six he'd acquired in race one.

On the very next lap, however, rookie Giacomo Ricci spun, bringing out the safety car, and providing Maldonado with an opportunity to redress the balance. As soon as the field was given the green flag, the Venezuelan pulled a move into turn one, causing the cars to touch once again and sending Zuber across the infield before rejoining beyond turn two. Both cars lost places as a result, but there was worse to come as both had to retire to the pits with damage.

“That was really brutal, the way my team-mate tried to overtake me," Zuber complained afterwards, "It caused severe damage to the whole right side of my car. I am frustrated, as I absolutely wanted to score points and had already reached sixth place when my team-mate's mistake destroyed everything."

The double retirement left Zuber sixth overall in the points leaving Barcelona, with Maldonado back in a share of tenth, courtesy of the two-point bonus he scooped for Saturday's pole position.

It could have been worse for Zuber who, having had to jink around his stranded team-mate at the start on Saturday brought home a welcome podium first time out. At the start of the warm-up lap, he hadn't been able to select first gear, and took some time before moving off, before eventually retaking his allocated starting spot. Having then avoided Maldonado, he locked up into turn one, giving himself tyre-induced handling problems for much of the race.

“Even though I say it myself, it was a great manoeuvre, instinctively drawing to the right to pass Maldonado," he said of his start, "Unfortunately, though, my front tyres locked massively prior to the first turn, which caused flatspots that bothered me throughout the race as we only could change the prepared rear tyres at the pit-stop. Then there was so much traffic [in pit-lane] that I couldn't drive off as planned, and Senna was able to squeeze past me.

“But to score points at the first race and conquer a podium place is very good. The team did an excellent job. and we saw that we are fast. Now I'll put my foot down hard once more in Istanbul, ride a full attack and see what it adds up to in the end.”