I understand that but Lewis' car seemed 4 tenths faster over a lap so why don't just match the Red Bulls and take them in the pits if you lose it in the first corner. It just seems Merc are trying to be "smart".
Max flat spotted his medium tyres, so he
had to choose the softs for quali. Pointless trying to match another car with the same strategy if you're slower than them... it'll just put you in the same position.
The optimum race tyre is the medium (or so they've said) it's just RB forced their own hand by flat spotting that new set. Now, I personally believe they were always going to start the race on the softs anyway (to guarantee pole and track position) but it won't have helped that they've lost a set of mediums. Remember, the track is going to be cooling down... you don't want to fit a set of hard tyres if you can help it, as they'll take an age to warm up.
Starting medium and fitting a set of softs for the sprint to the line at the end should be the faster strategy assuming they can stretch the mediums to pull off a 1-stop.