diff --git a/drivers/block/drbd/drbd_nl.c b/drivers/block/drbd/drbd_nl.c
index 82915880c5e9..bfe1b0062d62 100644
--- a/drivers/block/drbd/drbd_nl.c
+++ b/drivers/block/drbd/drbd_nl.c
@@ -697,14 +697,15 @@ drbd_set_role(struct drbd_device *const device, enum drbd_role new_role, int for
 		if (rv == SS_TWO_PRIMARIES) {
 			/* Maybe the peer is detected as dead very soon...
 			   retry at most once more in this case. */
-			int timeo;
-			rcu_read_lock();
-			nc = rcu_dereference(connection->net_conf);
-			timeo = nc ? (nc->ping_timeo + 1) * HZ / 10 : 1;
-			rcu_read_unlock();
-			schedule_timeout_interruptible(timeo);
-			if (try < max_tries)
+			if (try < max_tries) {
+				int timeo;
 				try = max_tries - 1;
+				rcu_read_lock();
+				nc = rcu_dereference(connection->net_conf);
+				timeo = nc ? (nc->ping_timeo + 1) * HZ / 10 : 1;
+				rcu_read_unlock();
+				schedule_timeout_interruptible(timeo);
+			}
 			continue;
 		}
 		if (rv < SS_SUCCESS) {