Why did Max give up track position and not choose to defend on tyres that were only 16 laps older than Norris and 13 laps older than Kimi's?

Lawson ran a 1-stop to the end on a set of Mediums which would've been 15 laps more than what Max would've had to defend the win with (37 laps total for Max).

Hulkenberg managed to run 35 laps on the softs and finished ahead of Gasly who ran the two stop.

This seems like a complete strategic blunder unless Max absolutely ripped through the first set of mediums