First of all, most of the strategists today were blithering idiots. I say this as an internet knucklehead who could probably never run a team. Leaving their guys in the pits for any length to save tyres was just asking for an early exit.
I thought for sure that flying laps at 00:00 wouldn't count in Q1 and Q2 until Jolyon Palmer advanced on his last flying lap.
This was a knee-jerk reaction of a gimmick to fix a qualifying format that was never broken in a feeble attempt to punish Mercedes for doing their job better than everybody else - and failed miserably, especially in Q3.
I feel sorry for the fans in attendance. This was awful. Obviously excluding life-and-death tragedies, this is one of the worst things I've seen in the 15 or so years I've watched F1 in the present tense. This includes actually being at the 2005 USGP. This includes Luca Badoer's comeback with Ferrari. It includes Crashgate.