diff --git a/test/framework/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/test/test/InternalTestClusterTests.java b/test/framework/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/test/test/InternalTestClusterTests.java
index 1e84610985d..d7d5e09c116 100644
--- a/test/framework/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/test/test/InternalTestClusterTests.java
+++ b/test/framework/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/test/test/InternalTestClusterTests.java
@@ -28,6 +28,7 @@ import org.elasticsearch.cluster.service.ClusterService;
 import org.elasticsearch.common.network.NetworkModule;
 import org.elasticsearch.common.settings.Settings;
 import org.elasticsearch.discovery.DiscoverySettings;
+import org.elasticsearch.discovery.zen.ZenDiscovery;
 import org.elasticsearch.env.NodeEnvironment;
 import org.elasticsearch.plugins.Plugin;
 import org.elasticsearch.test.ESTestCase;
@@ -356,7 +357,10 @@ public class InternalTestClusterTests extends ESTestCase {
                         .put(NodeEnvironment.MAX_LOCAL_STORAGE_NODES_SETTING.getKey(), numNodes)
                         .put(NetworkModule.HTTP_ENABLED.getKey(), false)
                         .put(NetworkModule.TRANSPORT_TYPE_KEY, MockTcpTransportPlugin.MOCK_TCP_TRANSPORT_NAME)
-                        .put(DiscoverySettings.INITIAL_STATE_TIMEOUT_SETTING.getKey(), 0).build();
+                        .put(DiscoverySettings.INITIAL_STATE_TIMEOUT_SETTING.getKey(), 0)
+                        // timeout as no initial state timeout makes split elections more likely
+                        .put(ZenDiscovery.JOIN_TIMEOUT_SETTING.getKey(), "3s") // speed up
+                        .build();
                 }
 
                 @Override