diff --git a/deploy/stage/common-values-iris-mpc.yaml b/deploy/stage/common-values-iris-mpc.yaml
index 8cb0968ff..b3c976503 100644
--- a/deploy/stage/common-values-iris-mpc.yaml
+++ b/deploy/stage/common-values-iris-mpc.yaml
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-image: "ghcr.io/worldcoin/iris-mpc:4065a7f06f7c3482417f387542bf76fbd7bae1f5"
+image: "ghcr.io/worldcoin/iris-mpc:dad454c64c6f2093a3be910de71117c7f2e04307"
 
 environment: stage
 replicaCount: 1
diff --git a/iris-mpc-common/src/config/mod.rs b/iris-mpc-common/src/config/mod.rs
index 980c1ff9a..ec0af8f63 100644
--- a/iris-mpc-common/src/config/mod.rs
+++ b/iris-mpc-common/src/config/mod.rs
@@ -123,6 +123,9 @@ pub struct Config {
 
     #[serde(default)]
     pub test_load_into_memory: bool,
+
+    #[serde(default)]
+    pub page_lock_at_beginning: bool,
 }
 
 fn default_load_chunks_parallelism() -> usize {
diff --git a/iris-mpc/src/bin/server.rs b/iris-mpc/src/bin/server.rs
index a3bea5faa..ddc9f9f22 100644
--- a/iris-mpc/src/bin/server.rs
+++ b/iris-mpc/src/bin/server.rs
@@ -1203,9 +1203,15 @@ async fn server_main(config: Config) -> eyre::Result<()> {
                             );
                         }
                     });
+                    let mut page_lock_handle = Some(page_lock_handle);
 
                     tokio::runtime::Handle::current().block_on(async {
-                        let now = Instant::now();
+                        let mut now = Instant::now();
+                        if config.page_lock_at_beginning {
+                            page_lock_handle.take().unwrap().await?;
+                            tracing::info!("Page-locking took {:?}", now.elapsed());
+                        }
+                        now = Instant::now();
                         let mut load_summary_ts = Instant::now();
                         let mut time_waiting_for_stream = time::Duration::from_secs(0);
                         let mut time_loading_into_memory = time::Duration::from_secs(0);
@@ -1365,12 +1371,15 @@ async fn server_main(config: Config) -> eyre::Result<()> {
                         tracing::info!("Preprocessing db");
                         actor.preprocess_db();
 
-                        tracing::info!("Waiting for page-lock to finish");
-                        page_lock_handle.await?;
+                        if !config.page_lock_at_beginning {
+                            tracing::info!("Waiting for page-lock to finish");
+                            page_lock_handle.take().unwrap().await?;
+                        }
 
                         tracing::info!(
-                            "Loaded {} records from db into memory [DB sizes: {:?}]",
+                            "Loaded {} records from db into memory in {:?} [DB sizes: {:?}]",
                             record_counter,
+                            now.elapsed(),
                             actor.current_db_sizes()
                         );