Nico Rosberg says he knew Red Bull had a mistake on strategy the moment Max Verstappen stopped for intermediates at the Brazilian Grand Prix.
After the final race restart, Verstappen had snatched second from Rosberg with a breathtaking move through Turn 2. Red Bull then decided to gamble on the rain disappearing and the track conditions improving, bringing both its cars in for intermediate tyres.
The decision proved to be misjudged as Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo had to pit again to switch back to wet tyres. Verstappen subsequently charged through the field from 16th to third, but did not have enough laps to catch Rosberg in second.
Rosberg, who now just needs a podium in Abu Dhabi to win his first world title, immediately knew it was a mistake.
"I was out there to try and win the race," said Rosberg. "Especially in the first part of the race, my mindset was - what can I do to get back forwards again?
"But at the same time I was realistic about the fact that it was going to be very difficult to get back in front of him [Verstappen], because he was on the same pace to us.
"But I was actually happy when he boxed. I understood at the time that they were just taking a gamble for the race win, that's what they were doing, but I thought that was not the right thing to do. I was surprised because, at the same time, just earlier, they'd predicted more rain in the very near future.
"Even if it did work for a couple of laps, the prediction at the time was a bit more rain, and since I was on such a knife's edge, just a little bit more rain would have put it over the edge. So at the time I was quite comfortable with it.
"I was sure that inters were the wrong thing, because if I'm really struggling with unpredictable aquaplaning on full wets, then inters are not the right way to go."
When asked if he had been surprised or happy by the decision, he replied: "Both, surprised and happy, yeah. Because at the same time just earlier they predicted more rain in the very near future so even if it did work for a couple of laps the prediction at the time was a bit more rain and since it was on such a knife-edge, just a little bit of rain would have again put it over the edge. So at the time I was quite comfortable with it."