diff --git a/.gitlab-ci/virtme-scripts/run-weston-tests.sh b/.gitlab-ci/virtme-scripts/run-weston-tests.sh
index af1e1c5f..40e80e90 100755
--- a/.gitlab-ci/virtme-scripts/run-weston-tests.sh
+++ b/.gitlab-ci/virtme-scripts/run-weston-tests.sh
@@ -15,13 +15,15 @@ export LIBSEAT_BACKEND=seatd
 # virtme starts with HOME=/tmp/roothome, but as we installed meson on user root,
 # meson can not find its modules. So we change the HOME env var to fix that.
 export HOME=/root
+export PATH=$HOME/.local/bin:$PATH
 
 # start seatd and wait for its socket to be available before running the test
 /usr/local/bin/seatd &
 while ! [ -e /run/seatd.sock ]; do sleep 0.1; done
 
 # run the tests and save the exit status
-ASAN_OPTIONS=detect_leaks=0,atexit=1 ninja test
+# we give ourselves a very generous timeout multiplier due to ASan overhead
+ASAN_OPTIONS=detect_leaks=0,atexit=1 meson test --timeout-multiplier 4
 TEST_RES=$?
 
 # create a file to keep the result of this script: