Red Bull's motorsport advisor, Helmut Marko, who reports directly to company owner Dietrich Mateschitz, believes the team's driver dispute which followed Sunday's Malaysian Grand Prix has been settled.

Amidst claims that Sebastian Vettel should be dropped for one race and speculation that Mark Webber might not attend the forthcoming Chinese Grand Prix, Marko insists that as far as the Austrian team is concerned the matter is now settled.

"Sebastian apologised in the press conference, and I think that's the first correct step to take," says Marko, according to Australia's News.com. "There was a debrief afterwards, in which there were the relevant discussions about the race. Then there was a handshake between the two drivers. So for us now the issue is settled."

Referring to the incident which sparked the furore, Marko is clearly taking the world champion's side.

"We told Sebastian to hold his position because we didn't know what the tyre situation was and both drivers needed to bring home a good finish for the team. But then came the attack against that strategy and it got out of control. You couldn't control it over radio or anything like that.

"'Sebastian the racer' came out and took the lead," he added.

Well if Herr Marko really does believe that this is settled, it makes a total mockery of the claim that in the valley of the blind…