diff --git a/scrape/scrape.go b/scrape/scrape.go
index 79ef69ae49..cf7d9c4e02 100644
--- a/scrape/scrape.go
+++ b/scrape/scrape.go
@@ -822,9 +822,6 @@ func acceptEncodingHeader(enableCompression bool) string {
 var UserAgent = version.PrometheusUserAgent()
 
 func (s *targetScraper) scrape(ctx context.Context) (*http.Response, error) {
-	ctx, span := otel.Tracer("").Start(ctx, "Scrape", trace.WithSpanKind(trace.SpanKindClient))
-	defer span.End()
-
 	if s.req == nil {
 		req, err := http.NewRequest(http.MethodGet, s.URL().String(), nil)
 		if err != nil {
@@ -837,11 +834,10 @@ func (s *targetScraper) scrape(ctx context.Context) (*http.Response, error) {
 
 		s.req = req
 	}
-
+	ctx, span := otel.Tracer("").Start(ctx, "Scrape", trace.WithSpanKind(trace.SpanKindClient))
+	defer span.End()
 	req := s.req.WithContext(ctx)
-
 	otel.GetTextMapPropagator().Inject(ctx, propagation.HeaderCarrier(req.Header))
-
 	return s.client.Do(req)
 }
 
diff --git a/scrape/scrape_test.go b/scrape/scrape_test.go
index 270121c8c5..3e29fdbcc7 100644
--- a/scrape/scrape_test.go
+++ b/scrape/scrape_test.go
@@ -45,6 +45,9 @@ import (
 	"github.com/prometheus/common/model"
 	"github.com/prometheus/common/promslog"
 	"github.com/stretchr/testify/require"
+	"go.opentelemetry.io/otel"
+	"go.opentelemetry.io/otel/propagation"
+	sdktrace "go.opentelemetry.io/otel/sdk/trace"
 
 	"github.com/prometheus/prometheus/config"
 	"github.com/prometheus/prometheus/discovery"
@@ -3116,10 +3119,16 @@ func TestTargetScraperScrapeOK(t *testing.T) {
 	)
 
 	var (
-		protobufParsing bool
-		allowUTF8       bool
-		qValuePattern   = regexp.MustCompile(`q=([0-9]+(\.\d+)?)`)
+		protobufParsing    bool
+		allowUTF8          bool
+		qValuePattern      = regexp.MustCompile(`q=([0-9]+(\.\d+)?)`)
+		traceparentPattern = regexp.MustCompile(`^[0-9a-f]{2}-[0-9a-f]{32}-[0-9a-f]{16}-[0-9a-f]{2}$`)
 	)
+	tp := sdktrace.NewTracerProvider(
+		sdktrace.WithSampler(sdktrace.AlwaysSample()),
+	)
+	otel.SetTracerProvider(tp)
+	otel.SetTextMapPropagator(propagation.TraceContext{})
 
 	server := httptest.NewServer(
 		http.HandlerFunc(func(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) {
@@ -3148,6 +3157,11 @@ func TestTargetScraperScrapeOK(t *testing.T) {
 			timeout := r.Header.Get("X-Prometheus-Scrape-Timeout-Seconds")
 			require.Equal(t, expectedTimeout, timeout, "Expected scrape timeout header.")
 
+			traceparent := r.Header.Get("traceparent")
+			require.NotEmpty(t, traceparent, "Expected traceparent header to be present")
+			require.Regexp(t, traceparentPattern, traceparent,
+				"Traceparent header must match W3C format, got %q", traceparent)
+
 			if allowUTF8 {
 				w.Header().Set("Content-Type", `text/plain; version=1.0.0; escaping=allow-utf-8`)
 			} else {
@@ -3162,7 +3176,6 @@ func TestTargetScraperScrapeOK(t *testing.T) {
 	if err != nil {
 		panic(err)
 	}
-
 	runTest := func(t *testing.T, acceptHeader string) {
 		ts := &targetScraper{
 			Target: &Target{