diff --git a/pkg/tests/testinfra/testinfra.go b/pkg/tests/testinfra/testinfra.go
index ed897a4b1a6..fe13679fc59 100644
--- a/pkg/tests/testinfra/testinfra.go
+++ b/pkg/tests/testinfra/testinfra.go
@@ -314,12 +314,15 @@ func CreateGrafDir(t *testing.T, opts ...GrafanaOpts) (string, string) {
 			_, err = logSection.NewKey("address", o.GRPCServerAddress)
 			require.NoError(t, err)
 		}
+		// retry queries 3 times by default
+		queryRetries := 3
 		if o.QueryRetries != 0 {
-			logSection, err := getOrCreateSection("database")
-			require.NoError(t, err)
-			_, err = logSection.NewKey("query_retries", fmt.Sprintf("%d", o.QueryRetries))
-			require.NoError(t, err)
+			queryRetries = int(o.QueryRetries)
 		}
+		logSection, err := getOrCreateSection("database")
+		require.NoError(t, err)
+		_, err = logSection.NewKey("query_retries", fmt.Sprintf("%d", queryRetries))
+		require.NoError(t, err)
 	}
 
 	cfgPath := filepath.Join(cfgDir, "test.ini")