RB team principal Laurent Mekies: "Given this may have been Daniel’s last race, we wanted to give him the chance to savour it and go out with the fastest lap."
Imo thats a pretty weird quote to publish. On one hand you have RB slyly referencing something they usually dont mention because they have no say in it - their driver lineup being decided soon. And on the other hand it's a preemptive attempt to counter arguments that Danny helped Max.
It's gotta be more fun to thrash an F1 car around the track with new tires than to go at a sensible pace with 30 lap old tires. I know what I'd prefer for my potential last couple of laps if I were in that situation