Fisichella delivers Force India's first F1 points

After 29 false starts, the Vijay Mallya-owned Force India finally nixed the hoodoo and scored their maiden Formula One points with Giancarlo Fisichella finishing second in the Belgian Grand Prix on Sunday.

The 36-year-old Italian driver, rumoured to have one foot in Ferrari, shunned extravagance to run a flawless race and trailed Kimi Raikkonen's Ferrari, which had snatched the lead using the Kinetic Energy Recovery System, all the way for a podium finish and earn eight valuable points.

The Italian finished less than a second behind Raikkonen.

Fisichella's Force India teammate Adrian Sutil had a rather rollercoaster outing with the German eventually finishing 11th.

With this, Fisichella renewed his tryst with Spa, which has traditionally been benign to him.

It was at the same track in 1997 that Fisichella had finished second in a Jordan car.

For a car without the KERS boost, Fisichella displayed amazing racecraft in a race marked and marred by opening lap pile-up, early safety car and pit-stop fumbles.