Resta clocked his best lap in 1m 47.241 while Hulkenberg's timing of 1:47.975 was good enough for only 11th place as he could not get into Q3.
It was 2012 season's best qualifying result for Di Resta, who had a similar outing in 2011's British Grand Prix.
An eighth place start at the Canadian Grand Prix was Di Resta's best result before today's qualifying session.
McLaren's Lewis Hamilton secured the pole position with a flying lap of 1m 46.362s. The Briton was half a second quicker than Williams' Pastor Maldonado, who surprisingly took the second place on the grid.
Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel was third, ahead of McLaren's Jenson Button and Ferrari's Fernando Alonso.
Mark Webber was seventh in the second Red Bull, followed by Romain Grosjean of Lotus, Michael Schumacher and his Mercedes teamate Nico Rosberg. More