diff --git a/public/app/plugins/datasource/elasticsearch/datasource.ts b/public/app/plugins/datasource/elasticsearch/datasource.ts
index aa2b9f0d655..dc8e97e4789 100644
--- a/public/app/plugins/datasource/elasticsearch/datasource.ts
+++ b/public/app/plugins/datasource/elasticsearch/datasource.ts
@@ -264,7 +264,7 @@ export class ElasticDatasource extends DataSourceApi<ElasticsearchQuery, Elastic
         const expandedQuery = {
           ...query,
           datasource: this.name,
-          query: this.templateSrv.replace(query.query),
+          query: this.templateSrv.replace(query.query, {}, 'lucene'),
         };
         return expandedQuery;
       });