diff --git a/hack/test.sh b/hack/test.sh
index 72ffc6511..51b34ff3e 100755
--- a/hack/test.sh
+++ b/hack/test.sh
@@ -20,7 +20,13 @@ ARTIFACT_DIR=${ARTIFACT_DIR:-""}
 GINKGO=${GINKGO:-"go run -mod=vendor ${REPO_ROOT}/vendor/github.com/onsi/ginkgo/v2/ginkgo"}
 PARALLEL_FLAG="-p"
 if [ "${OPENSHIFT_CI:-}" == "true" ]; then
-  PARALLEL_FLAG="--procs=4"
+  if [[ "${TEST_DIRS}" == *"e2e"* ]]; then
+    PARALLEL_FLAG="--procs=4"
+  else
+    # Limit parallelism: each Ginkgo process starts its own envtest
+    # control plane, and higher values cause timeout failures in CI.
+    PARALLEL_FLAG="--procs=2"
+  fi
 fi
 GINKGO_ARGS=${GINKGO_ARGS:-"-r -v ${PARALLEL_FLAG} --randomize-all --randomize-suites --keep-going --race --trace --timeout=${TIMEOUT}"}
 GINKGO_EXTRA_ARGS=${GINKGO_EXTRA_ARGS:-""}
diff --git a/pkg/controllers/machinesetsync/suite_test.go b/pkg/controllers/machinesetsync/suite_test.go
index 6426e8672..ec6ccb4a4 100644
--- a/pkg/controllers/machinesetsync/suite_test.go
+++ b/pkg/controllers/machinesetsync/suite_test.go
@@ -43,7 +43,7 @@ import (
 )
 
 const (
-	timeout              = 2 * time.Second
+	timeout              = 5 * time.Second
 	longerTimeout        = 10 * time.Second
 	setupTimeout         = 1 * time.Minute
 	consecutiveFailLimit = 8