diff --git a/arch/x86/kvm/timer.c b/arch/x86/kvm/timer.c
index 85cc743a820..1baed414b57 100644
--- a/arch/x86/kvm/timer.c
+++ b/arch/x86/kvm/timer.c
@@ -9,12 +9,16 @@ static int __kvm_timer_fn(struct kvm_vcpu *vcpu, struct kvm_timer *ktimer)
 	int restart_timer = 0;
 	wait_queue_head_t *q = &vcpu->wq;
 
-	/* FIXME: this code should not know anything about vcpus */
-	if (!atomic_inc_and_test(&ktimer->pending))
-		set_bit(KVM_REQ_PENDING_TIMER, &vcpu->requests);
-
-	if (!ktimer->reinject)
-		atomic_set(&ktimer->pending, 1);
+	/*
+	 * There is a race window between reading and incrementing, but we do
+	 * not care about potentially loosing timer events in the !reinject
+	 * case anyway.
+	 */
+	if (ktimer->reinject || !atomic_read(&ktimer->pending)) {
+		/* FIXME: this code should not know anything about vcpus */
+		if (!atomic_inc_and_test(&ktimer->pending))
+			set_bit(KVM_REQ_PENDING_TIMER, &vcpu->requests);
+	}
 
 	if (waitqueue_active(q))
 		wake_up_interruptible(q);