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Toto Wolff believes Mercedes "has a fight on its hands" for the F1 championship with Ferrari following an Australian GP duel for victory.

At the start, Ferrari's Charles Leclerc roared into the lead after the front-row pair of George Russell and Kimi Antonelli bogged down after not having enough battery charge, with Leclerc leading from Russell as Lewis Hamilton ran third after passing the fast-starting Arvid Lindblad.

Leclerc and Russell then traded the lead seven times over the first 11 laps as Hamilton closed in on the dueling pair to make it a three-way fight for the lead before Russell pitted under a VSC for Isack Hadjar's stopped Red Bull.

This left Ferrari running one-two, but it did not pit Leclerc or Hamilton under the VSC, or during a secondary deployment for Valtteri Bottas's stricken Cadillac.

This allowed Mercedes to resume control of the race once both Ferraris did pit under green flag conditions, going onto claim a one-two finish, Russell ahead of Antonelli.

It is the first one-two for Mercedes not involving Lewis Hamilton since the 1955 Italian GP, with Juan Manuel Fangio and Pierro Taruffi.

Post-race, reflecting on the threat posed by Ferrari going forwards, Wolff declared that the Brackley squad "has a fight on its hands."

"There is so much contentment that I feel in the team at the moment," Wolff told media, including RacingNews365.

"When we've had the winning streak of eight championships and then difficult years, we still won races and finished second in the championship, but a solid one-two means for the season ahead, you can fight for a world championship, and [we haven't had that feeling] for a long time.

"Then you are probably more grateful when you bounce back like this, having had the difficult years.

"When it comes to Ferrari, before the race, people were saying that: 'You will disappear into the distance', but that wasn't the case.

"We know they are strong on starts, and that's what happened. It was an out-and-out battle between Charles and George at the beginning.

"It was a three-way fight at one stage with the two Ferraris and George, and eventually Kimi caught up, so for me, the prevailing feeling is that we now have a fight on our hands with Ferrari.

"There was a worry it wasn't going to be exciting in terms of the fighting and the boost and the overtake modes, but it actually made [the race] quite interesting to watch on a track particularly difficult for energy, so we'll see how that goes in Shanghai.

"But most of all, there is a certain degree of contentment that Mercedes is back."