SAFARI NOT WORKING PROPERLY ON IPAD MINI 6

For the last couple of days Safari on my iPad Mini 6 hasn’t been working properly: almost every new tab freezes a minute after it’s opened, 3 times out of 5 new tabs don’t load and show only a blank grey page (happens especially when I open several tabs in a row), the response to touch input is often slow and delayed, the “request desktop website” option doesn’t always work (nothing happens when I click on it). Today I’ve noticed one of these issues in Chrome as well - although it was super light compared to what’s been happening in Safari.

What could be the issue, and how do I solve it? Or do I just contact Apple Support?

I’m terrified this might be a sign of hardware problems caused by damage occurred during shipping - I ordered the iPad on Amzn about 3 weeks ago, and it arrived in a box so ripped that calling it slaughtered is an euphemism (the box was completely torn open on one side…enough for the iPad to slide out of it!).