diff --git a/test/blackbox/helpers_zot.bash b/test/blackbox/helpers_zot.bash
index 4dbe0dd1..aa2bde91 100644
--- a/test/blackbox/helpers_zot.bash
+++ b/test/blackbox/helpers_zot.bash
@@ -42,10 +42,10 @@ function wait_zot_reachable() {
     local zot_port=${1}
     local zot_url=http://127.0.0.1:${zot_port}/v2/_catalog
     curl --connect-timeout 3 \
-        --max-time 3 \
-        --retry 10 \
-        --retry-delay 0 \
-        --retry-max-time 120 \
+        --max-time 5 \
+        --retry 20 \
+        --retry-delay 1 \
+        --retry-max-time 180 \
         --retry-connrefused \
         ${zot_url}
 }
diff --git a/test/blackbox/pushpull_running_dedupe.bats b/test/blackbox/pushpull_running_dedupe.bats
index 17d758b1..c32a78c6 100644
--- a/test/blackbox/pushpull_running_dedupe.bats
+++ b/test/blackbox/pushpull_running_dedupe.bats
@@ -120,6 +120,9 @@ function teardown_file() {
 
     zot_serve ${ZOT_PATH} ${zot_config_file}
 
+    # sleep a bit before running wait_zot_reachable(curl)
+    sleep 5
+
     wait_zot_reachable 8080
     # deduping will now run in background (task scheduler) while we push images, shouldn't interfere
 }