diff --git a/tests/rptest/tests/cloud_storage_chunk_read_path_test.py b/tests/rptest/tests/cloud_storage_chunk_read_path_test.py
index 4f7b9b9f2901..1b49144cc5a9 100644
--- a/tests/rptest/tests/cloud_storage_chunk_read_path_test.py
+++ b/tests/rptest/tests/cloud_storage_chunk_read_path_test.py
@@ -506,10 +506,6 @@ def __init__(self, redpanda: RedpandaService, topic: str, n_delete=3):
         self.n_delete = n_delete
         self.deleted_chunks = 0
 
-        leader_id = Admin(self.redpanda).get_partition_leader(
-            namespace='kafka', topic=self.topic, partition=0)
-        self.leader = self.redpanda.get_node_by_id(leader_id)
-
     def run(self) -> None:
         cmd = f"""
 find {self.redpanda.DATA_DIR}/cloud_storage_cache -regex '.*kafka/{self.topic}/.*_chunks/[0-9]+' -print0 |\
@@ -518,11 +514,15 @@ def run(self) -> None:
  xargs --no-run-if-empty --null rm -v"""
         while not self.stop_requested:
             sleep(self.sleep_interval)
-            if self.leader in self.redpanda.started_nodes():
+            leader_id = Admin(self.redpanda).get_partition_leader(
+                namespace='kafka', topic=self.topic, partition=0)
+            leader_node = self.redpanda.get_node_by_id(leader_id)
+
+            if leader_node in self.redpanda.started_nodes():
                 try:
-                    for row in self.leader.account.ssh_capture(cmd):
+                    for row in leader_node.account.ssh_capture(cmd):
                         self.redpanda.logger.debug(
-                            f'{self.leader.account.hostname}: {row.strip()}')
+                            f'{leader_node.account.hostname}: {row.strip()}')
                         self.deleted_chunks += 1
                 except Exception as ex:
                     self.redpanda.logger.info(