diff --git a/case-lib/lib.sh b/case-lib/lib.sh
index 09ed78c1..4875569d 100644
--- a/case-lib/lib.sh
+++ b/case-lib/lib.sh
@@ -901,9 +901,9 @@ perf_analyze()
     dlogi "Checking SOF component performance"
     if [ -e "$LOG_ROOT/mtrace.txt" ]; then
         if [ -e "$LOG_ROOT/dmesg.txt" ]; then
-            perf_cmd="sof_perf_analyzer.py --kmsg=$LOG_ROOT/dmesg.txt --out2csv $LOG_ROOT/sof_perf.txt $LOG_ROOT/mtrace.txt "
+            perf_cmd="sof_perf_analyzer.py --skip-to-first-trace --kmsg=$LOG_ROOT/dmesg.txt --out2csv $LOG_ROOT/sof_perf.txt $LOG_ROOT/mtrace.txt"
         else
-            perf_cmd="sof_perf_analyzer.py --out2csv $LOG_ROOT/sof_perf.txt $LOG_ROOT/mtrace.txt"
+            perf_cmd="sof_perf_analyzer.py --skip-to-first-trace --out2csv $LOG_ROOT/sof_perf.txt $LOG_ROOT/mtrace.txt"
         fi
         dlogc "$perf_cmd"
         eval "$perf_cmd" || {
diff --git a/tools/sof_perf_analyzer.py b/tools/sof_perf_analyzer.py
index 2ea231d3..33703d56 100755
--- a/tools/sof_perf_analyzer.py
+++ b/tools/sof_perf_analyzer.py
@@ -26,7 +26,6 @@
 import pathlib
 import argparse
 from typing import TextIO
-from typing import Optional
 from typing import Generator
 from dataclasses import dataclass
 
@@ -115,20 +114,16 @@ def dispatch_trace_item(trace_item: TraceItem):
     if trace_item.func == 'comp_copy':
         collect_perf_info(trace_item)
 
-def skip_to_first_trace(trace_item_gen: TraceItemGenerator) -> Optional[TraceItem]:
+def skip_to_first_trace(trace_item_gen: TraceItemGenerator):
     '''The current sof-test test case may collect some traces belonging to previous
     test case due to mtrace is configured in deferred mode. This function consumes
     those traces from the generator, and return the first trace item of current test.
     '''
-    try:
-        while item := next(trace_item_gen):
-            # On test running, the SOF firmware is reloaded to DSP, timer is reset to 0.
-            # The first trace must have a timestamp with integral part equals to 0.
-            if int(item.timestamp) == 0:
-                return item
-    except StopIteration:
-        return None
-    return None
+    while item := next(trace_item_gen):
+        # On test running, the SOF firmware is reloaded to DSP, timer is reset to 0.
+        # The first trace must have a timestamp with integral part equals to 0.
+        if int(item.timestamp) == 0:
+            return item
 
 def make_trace_item(fileio: TextIO) -> TraceItemGenerator:
     '''Filter and parse a line of trace in string form into TraceItem object, for example:
@@ -169,9 +164,15 @@ def process_trace_file():
     '''The top-level caller for processing the trace file'''
     with open(args.filename, 'r', encoding='utf8') as file:
         trace_item_gen = make_trace_item(file)
-        trace_prev = skip_to_first_trace(trace_item_gen)
-        if trace_prev is None:
-            raise Exception('No valid trace in provided file')
+        trace_prev = None
+        try:
+            if args.skip_to_first_trace:
+                trace_prev = skip_to_first_trace(trace_item_gen)
+            else:
+                trace_prev = next(trace_item_gen)
+        except StopIteration as si:
+            si.args = ('No valid trace in provided file',)
+            raise
         for trace_curr in trace_item_gen:
             # pylint: disable=W0603
             global ts_shift
@@ -295,6 +296,11 @@ def parse_args():
                         help='Kernel message file captured with journalctl or other log utility')
     parser.add_argument('--out2csv', type=pathlib.Path, required=False,
                     help='Output SOF performance statistics to csv file')
+    parser.add_argument('-s', '--skip-to-first-trace', action="store_true",  default=False,
+                        help='''In CI test, some traces from previous test case will appear in
+the mtrace of current test case, this flag is used to denote if we
+want to skip until the first line with a timestamp between 0 and 1s.
+For CI test, set the flag to True''')
 
     return parser.parse_args()