diff --git a/src/Interpreters/executeQuery.cpp b/src/Interpreters/executeQuery.cpp
index 46e3e3344cf..53fd5088372 100644
--- a/src/Interpreters/executeQuery.cpp
+++ b/src/Interpreters/executeQuery.cpp
@@ -1167,7 +1167,7 @@ static std::tuple<ASTPtr, BlockIO> executeQueryImpl(
                                 std::chrono::system_clock::now() + std::chrono::seconds(settings.query_cache_ttl),
                                 settings.query_cache_compress_entries);
 
-                            const size_t num_query_runs = query_cache->recordQueryRun(key);
+                            const size_t num_query_runs = settings.query_cache_min_query_runs ? query_cache->recordQueryRun(key) : 1; /// try to avoid locking a mutex in recordQueryRun()
                             if (num_query_runs <= settings.query_cache_min_query_runs)
                             {
                                 LOG_TRACE(getLogger("QueryCache"),