Resta, who had started ninth on the grid, beat the likes of Ferrari's Fernando Alonso (7th), McLaren's Lewis Hamilton (8th), Alonso's teammate Felipe Massa (9th) and the legendary Michael Schumacher (10th).
Schumacher, though, did extremely well to be in top-10 as he had dropped to 18th on the grid after being handed a five grid place penalty for an unscheduled gearbox change.
Before today's race, a seventh-place finish at the Malaysian Grand Prix was Resta's best show in the current season.
Now the Briton has been among points thrice in four races so far this year. He had missed out on points at the last week's Chinese Grand Prix.
Nico had started 13th on the grid and did well to gain one position.
Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel finally won the first race of the season from pole position, holding off the Lotus duo of Kimi Raikkonen and Romain Grosjean.
India's Narain Karthikeyan also recorded his best result as he finished 21st, just behind Hispania teammate Pedro de la Rosa. PTI AT