A bizarre accident involving Daniel Ricciardo had hurtled Di Resta into the points contention and he was driving as high as sixth in lap 34 but with just five laps from the finish, the Scot hit the nose of his car to the barriers at turn seven, ending his race.
It was Di Resta's fourth retirement of this season.
Force India were lucky to have scored a point considering their poor qualifying but the gap with McLaren has increased to 14 as Jenson Button and Sergio Perez added 10 points to the British outfit tally with their seventh and eight place finishes respectively.
Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel took the chequered flag ahead of Ferrari's Fernando Alonso and Lotus' Kimi Raikkonen who came into the race with a back problem and started as back as 13th on the grid.
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Nico Hulkenberg completed the top-10 line up in ninth.
Ricciardo suffered a crash in lap 25, forcing a safety car on the track for at least five laps. Di Resta benefited as he moved to seventh of Massa, Button and Raikkonnen.
Romain Grosjean, was ahead of Di Resta had to pit in lap 34 due to a air consumption problem, which further pushed Di Resta sixth. He was between the two Ferrari's.
Di Resta went to pit lane in lap 43 and rejoined 11th ahead of Massa, who pitted at the same time.