diff --git a/automation/check-patch.e2e-kubevirt-ipam-controller-functests.sh b/automation/check-patch.e2e-kubevirt-ipam-controller-functests.sh
index bbe4c049d3..639f05a8bd 100755
--- a/automation/check-patch.e2e-kubevirt-ipam-controller-functests.sh
+++ b/automation/check-patch.e2e-kubevirt-ipam-controller-functests.sh
@@ -33,6 +33,7 @@ main() {
     COMPONENT="kubevirt-ipam-controller" source automation/components-functests.setup.sh
 
     cd ${TMP_COMPONENT_PATH}
+    export OVN_KUBERNETES_BRANCH=release-1.1
     export KIND_ARGS="-ic -i6 -mne"
     make cluster-up
     export KUBECONFIG=${TMP_COMPONENT_PATH}/.output/kubeconfig