diff --git a/app/vmselect/promql/eval.go b/app/vmselect/promql/eval.go
index e0b2d9a6e..4650d8c7a 100644
--- a/app/vmselect/promql/eval.go
+++ b/app/vmselect/promql/eval.go
@@ -435,7 +435,7 @@ func execBinaryOpArgs(qt *querytracer.Tracer, ec *EvalConfig, exprFirst, exprSec
 			return nil, nil, errFirst
 		}
 		if errSecond != nil {
-			return nil, nil, errFirst
+			return nil, nil, errSecond
 		}
 		return tssFirst, tssSecond, nil
 	}