Fisichella had surprised everyone by gaining pole position in Saturday's qualifying, but it was expected that he would struggle to gain more than a few points in the race itself.
The Italian had a good start and led for a short while before a multiple accident on Lap 1 brought out the safety car. Renault's Romain Grosjean and Toro Rosso's Jaime Alguersuari collided with Brawn's Jensen Button and McLaren's Louis Hamilton, taking out the championship leader and the former world champion.
After the safety car pitted, Raikkonen used his KERS package to blast past Fisichella to take the lead and was expected to disappear into the distance. Fisichella, however, clearly had other ideas and surprisingly stayed on the Finns tail throughout the race, coming home a comfortable second to score Force India's first-ever championship points.
Red Bull Racing's championship contender Mark Webber, who started ninth, had powered his way through the field and looked set to grab a handful of points, to close down Button's lead. However, after pitting on Lap 14, the lollipop man released him straight into the path of BMW's Nick Heidfeld, earning the Australian a drive-through penalty and effectively wrecking his race.
Webber's teammate, Sebastian Vettel, temporarily took the lead after others had pitted and drove a good comeback race after his last two disappointing outings to come home third.
BMW's Robert Kubica and Nick Heidfeld came home fourth and fifth, with McLaren's Heikki Kovalainen in sixth place.
Rubens Barrichello nursed his stricken Brawn home for seventh, just in front of the rapidly closing Williams of Nico Rosberg, who grabbed the last points-paying place and Mark Webber, who once again came home ninth, missing out.
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