George Russell sent a dire warning to F1 organisers about setting drivers to racing in extremely wet conditions before Sunday's Brazilian Grand Prix.

Saturday's qualifying session at Interlagos was delayed for more than an hour due to a storm rendering the track undrivable, with the conditions still poor when the cars did finally get back out on track.

Russell was among the drivers who admitted after the session that he was hoping for a wet race to match Saturday's qualifying (he got his wish, in parts), but warned that there is a limit to what is actually safe for the competitors.

The Brit warned that no race should ever be started in conditions that qualifying was held in, fearing a 'really, really horrific incident' if 22 cars left the grid with the track in that state.

Russell: 'Very, very high' chance of disaster

"I love driving in the rain here but, at some point, if that was a race, there was no way we should be driving in that," he said, "because the chances of seeing a really, really horrific incident are very, very high."

The difference between what's safe for qualifying and what's safe for the race largely comes down to the spacing between drivers.

Drivers on hot laps try to be multiple seconds behind the nearest car so as to avoid being in dirty air, meaning that one of the biggest issues with modern F1 cars running in the rain - visibility through the spray - is somewhat negated.

It also means that if a driver aquaplanes and spins unexpectedly, as rookie Rafael Camara did on a straight in Q1, there's unlikely to be anyone directly behind him or next to him to be collected in the accident.

Contrast that with 22 cars launching off the line and into Turn 1 as a pack, and the difference becomes obvious.

Sainz: First two laps of qualifying were very sketchy

Carlos Sainz - like Russell, a director of the Grand Prix Drivers' Association - said as much after the session, explaining: "It felt a bit punchy when we left in the wet because we were aquaplaning in sixth and seventh gear down the straights and, if you lose the car at those speeds, it's always going to be a big one.

"Also very little visibility when you were running close to a car, but we are not forced to run close to cars in quali, so you can create a bit of a buffer to see. But it was very sketchy for two laps."

As for the chances of getting the race going in those conditions, he appeared to hold the same view as Russell, saying: "Like those first two laps [of qualifying] I think it could have been very tricky at the start of a race with the visibility, it would have been zero visibility basically and a lot of aquaplaning so it would have been interesting."