diff --git a/Dockerfile.python_runtime b/Dockerfile.python_runtime
index aec7fcd8528a6b149334ce61f66b3b992a32c10a..70dfbc7a473de7d1fd4513882da36bd8897cad54 100644
--- a/Dockerfile.python_runtime
+++ b/Dockerfile.python_runtime
@@ -127,4 +127,6 @@ RUN ln -sf /bin/bash /bin/sh && \
          /packages_to_install && \
   popd
 
-
+# Compile so __pycache__ will be already created for standard Python modules
+# Will work similar as e.g. `python -m compileall /urs/lib/python3.12` but is more flexible
+RUN python3 -c "import sysconfig, compileall; compileall.compile_dir(sysconfig.get_path('stdlib'))"
diff --git a/docker-bake.hcl b/docker-bake.hcl
index 5bfea1d0f051b54e6605f93858b31dccd8f3278a..1230a8b048ed4c23e7e82516bdf9f97091d1a4bd 100644
--- a/docker-bake.hcl
+++ b/docker-bake.hcl
@@ -17,7 +17,7 @@ variable "PYTHON_VERSION" {
 }
 
 variable "PYTHON_RUNTIME_VERSION" {
-  default = "3.12-u24.04"
+  default = "3.12-u24.04-1"
 }
 
 variable "PAAS_PSQL_VERSION" {