They were slower than the RB, Astons and mercs behind so they knew they had to go a different route strategy wise to beat them. Considering stroll who started on hards and went as long as tsunoda in the 1st stint finished well behind him (at one point in the race, stroll was within 5 secs of tsunoda and at the end he was over 10 secs behind), it seems AT and yuki made the right call