diff --git a/x-pack/plugin/eql/qa/common/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/test/eql/BaseEqlSpecTestCase.java b/x-pack/plugin/eql/qa/common/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/test/eql/BaseEqlSpecTestCase.java
index 64b7c6792dc..f49b13791f5 100644
--- a/x-pack/plugin/eql/qa/common/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/test/eql/BaseEqlSpecTestCase.java
+++ b/x-pack/plugin/eql/qa/common/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/test/eql/BaseEqlSpecTestCase.java
@@ -6,10 +6,13 @@
 
 package org.elasticsearch.test.eql;
 
+import org.apache.http.HttpHost;
 import org.elasticsearch.client.EqlClient;
 import org.elasticsearch.client.Request;
 import org.elasticsearch.client.RequestOptions;
 import org.elasticsearch.client.ResponseException;
+import org.elasticsearch.client.RestClient;
+import org.elasticsearch.client.RestClientBuilder;
 import org.elasticsearch.client.RestHighLevelClient;
 import org.elasticsearch.client.eql.EqlSearchRequest;
 import org.elasticsearch.client.eql.EqlSearchResponse;
@@ -18,6 +21,8 @@ import org.elasticsearch.client.eql.EqlSearchResponse.Hits;
 import org.elasticsearch.client.eql.EqlSearchResponse.Sequence;
 import org.elasticsearch.common.Strings;
 import org.elasticsearch.common.logging.LoggerMessageFormat;
+import org.elasticsearch.common.settings.Settings;
+import org.elasticsearch.common.unit.TimeValue;
 import org.elasticsearch.test.rest.ESRestTestCase;
 import org.junit.AfterClass;
 import org.junit.Before;
@@ -106,7 +111,10 @@ public abstract class BaseEqlSpecTestCase extends ESRestTestCase {
 
     protected EqlSearchResponse runQuery(String index, String query) throws Exception {
         EqlSearchRequest request = new EqlSearchRequest(index, query);
-        request.tiebreakerField("event.sequence");
+        String tiebreaker = tiebreaker();
+        if (tiebreaker != null) {
+            request.tiebreakerField(tiebreaker());
+        }
         // some queries return more than 10 results
         request.size(50);
         request.fetchSize(randomIntBetween(2, 50));
@@ -136,7 +144,7 @@ public abstract class BaseEqlSpecTestCase extends ESRestTestCase {
         final int len = events.size();
         final long[] ids = new long[len];
         for (int i = 0; i < len; i++) {
-            Object field = events.get(i).sourceAsMap().get(sequenceField());
+            Object field = events.get(i).sourceAsMap().get(tiebreaker());
             ids[i] = ((Number) field).longValue();
         }
         return ids;
@@ -167,5 +175,24 @@ public abstract class BaseEqlSpecTestCase extends ESRestTestCase {
         return true;
     }
 
-    protected abstract String sequenceField();
+    @Override
+    protected RestClient buildClient(Settings settings, HttpHost[] hosts) throws IOException {
+        RestClientBuilder builder = RestClient.builder(hosts);
+        configureClient(builder, settings);
+
+        int timeout = Math.toIntExact(timeout().millis());
+        builder.setRequestConfigCallback(
+            requestConfigBuilder -> requestConfigBuilder.setConnectTimeout(timeout)
+                .setConnectionRequestTimeout(timeout)
+                .setSocketTimeout(timeout)
+        );
+        builder.setStrictDeprecationMode(true);
+        return builder.build();
+    }
+
+    protected TimeValue timeout() {
+        return TimeValue.timeValueSeconds(10);
+    }
+
+    protected abstract String tiebreaker();
 }
diff --git a/x-pack/plugin/eql/qa/common/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/test/eql/EqlExtraSpecTestCase.java b/x-pack/plugin/eql/qa/common/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/test/eql/EqlExtraSpecTestCase.java
index f023bf7a502..53ccdf3e85f 100644
--- a/x-pack/plugin/eql/qa/common/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/test/eql/EqlExtraSpecTestCase.java
+++ b/x-pack/plugin/eql/qa/common/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/test/eql/EqlExtraSpecTestCase.java
@@ -25,7 +25,7 @@ public abstract class EqlExtraSpecTestCase extends BaseEqlSpecTestCase {
     }
 
     @Override
-    protected String sequenceField() {
+    protected String tiebreaker() {
         return "sequence";
     }
 }
diff --git a/x-pack/plugin/eql/qa/common/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/test/eql/EqlSpecTestCase.java b/x-pack/plugin/eql/qa/common/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/test/eql/EqlSpecTestCase.java
index 922b722e78d..9c8e9d2bcf6 100644
--- a/x-pack/plugin/eql/qa/common/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/test/eql/EqlSpecTestCase.java
+++ b/x-pack/plugin/eql/qa/common/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/test/eql/EqlSpecTestCase.java
@@ -47,7 +47,7 @@ public abstract class EqlSpecTestCase extends BaseEqlSpecTestCase {
     }
 
     @Override
-    protected String sequenceField() {
+    protected String tiebreaker() {
         return "serial_event_id";
     }