diff --git a/CONTRIBUTING.md b/CONTRIBUTING.md
index 2586551a9..50e403f78 100644
--- a/CONTRIBUTING.md
+++ b/CONTRIBUTING.md
@@ -60,7 +60,7 @@ Once your changes and tests are ready to submit for review:
 
     Ensure that all tests pass by running `make check-all`. This runs sequentially lint checks, unit tests and integration tests. These can be executed in isolation using `make lint`, `make test` and `make it` respectively, in case you need to iterate over a subset of tests.
 
-    Note: Integration tests are much slower than unit tests.
+    Note: Integration tests are much slower than unit tests and require `docker-compose`.
 
 3. Sign the Contributor License Agreement
 
diff --git a/esrally/driver/runner.py b/esrally/driver/runner.py
index 137bf4a4d..362fa903d 100644
--- a/esrally/driver/runner.py
+++ b/esrally/driver/runner.py
@@ -2892,6 +2892,7 @@ async def __call__(self, es, params):
         query = mandatory(params, "query", self)
         body = params.get("body", {})
         body["query"] = query
+        body["version"] = params.get("version", "2024.04.01.🚀")
         query_filter = params.get("filter")
         if query_filter:
             body["filter"] = query_filter
diff --git a/tests/driver/runner_test.py b/tests/driver/runner_test.py
index 910c1de95..48454cff0 100644
--- a/tests/driver/runner_test.py
+++ b/tests/driver/runner_test.py
@@ -7686,7 +7686,7 @@ async def test_esql_without_query_filter(self, es):
         esql = runner.Esql()
         result = await esql(es, params={"query": "from logs-* | stats c = count(*)"})
         assert result == {"weight": 1, "unit": "ops", "success": True}
-        expected_body = {"query": "from logs-* | stats c = count(*)"}
+        expected_body = {"query": "from logs-* | stats c = count(*)", "version": "2024.04.01.🚀"}
         es.perform_request.assert_awaited_once_with(method="POST", path="/_query", headers=None, body=expected_body, params={})
 
     @mock.patch("elasticsearch.Elasticsearch")
@@ -7698,7 +7698,7 @@ async def test_esql_with_query_filter(self, es):
         query_filter = {"range": {"@timestamp": {"gte": "2023"}}}
         result = await esql(es, params={"query": "from * | limit 1", "filter": query_filter})
         assert result == {"weight": 1, "unit": "ops", "success": True}
-        expected_body = {"query": "from * | limit 1", "filter": query_filter}
+        expected_body = {"query": "from * | limit 1", "version": "2024.04.01.🚀", "filter": query_filter}
         es.perform_request.assert_awaited_once_with(method="POST", path="/_query", headers=None, body=expected_body, params={})
 
     @mock.patch("elasticsearch.Elasticsearch")
@@ -7711,5 +7711,16 @@ async def test_esql_with_body(self, es):
         result = await esql(es, params={"query": "from * | limit 1", "body": {"pragma": pragma}})
         assert result == {"weight": 1, "unit": "ops", "success": True}
 
-        expected_body = {"pragma": pragma, "query": "from * | limit 1"}
+        expected_body = {"pragma": pragma, "query": "from * | limit 1", "version": "2024.04.01.🚀"}
+        es.perform_request.assert_awaited_once_with(method="POST", path="/_query", headers=None, body=expected_body, params={})
+
+    @mock.patch("elasticsearch.Elasticsearch")
+    @pytest.mark.asyncio
+    async def test_esql_with_version(self, es):
+        es.options.return_value = es
+        es.perform_request = mock.AsyncMock()
+        esql = runner.Esql()
+        result = await esql(es, params={"query": "from * | limit 1", "version": "wow"})
+        assert result == {"weight": 1, "unit": "ops", "success": True}
+        expected_body = {"query": "from * | limit 1", "version": "wow"}
         es.perform_request.assert_awaited_once_with(method="POST", path="/_query", headers=None, body=expected_body, params={})