diff --git a/pyrit/executor/promptgen/gcg/attack/base/attack_manager.py b/pyrit/executor/promptgen/gcg/attack/base/attack_manager.py
index eca7208aab..b0a70d57be 100644
--- a/pyrit/executor/promptgen/gcg/attack/base/attack_manager.py
+++ b/pyrit/executor/promptgen/gcg/attack/base/attack_manager.py
@@ -445,6 +445,9 @@ def _token_slice(
         return slice(indices[0], indices[-1] + 1)
 
     def _update_ids(self) -> None:
+        # Gemma and byte-level BPE tokenizers decode the control with the separator space in front;
+        # rendering that again would add a second space and an extra token before the control.
+        self.control = self.control.removeprefix(" ")
         if not self.control.strip() or not self.target.strip():
             raise ValueError("GCG control and target must contain non-whitespace text.")
         if not self.tokenizer.is_fast:
diff --git a/tests/unit/executor/promptgen/gcg/test_gcg_core.py b/tests/unit/executor/promptgen/gcg/test_gcg_core.py
index e787e84b99..d0419df180 100644
--- a/tests/unit/executor/promptgen/gcg/test_gcg_core.py
+++ b/tests/unit/executor/promptgen/gcg/test_gcg_core.py
@@ -787,6 +787,18 @@ def test_control_and_content_setters_recompute_boundaries(self, byte_level: bool
         assert prompt.target_toks.tolist() == control_ids
         assert prompt._control_slice.stop <= prompt._target_slice.start
 
+    def test_decoded_candidate_with_the_separator_space_renders_like_the_original(self) -> None:
+        tokenizer = _fast_tokenizer(byte_level=True)
+        original = AttackPrompt(goal="Say it", target="done", tokenizer=tokenizer, control_init="! !")
+        prompt = AttackPrompt(goal="Say it", target="done", tokenizer=tokenizer, control_init="! !")
+
+        # Gemma and byte-level BPE tokenizers decode the control tokens with the separator space in front.
+        prompt.control_str = " ! !"
+
+        assert prompt.control == "! !"
+        assert prompt.input_ids.tolist() == original.input_ids.tolist()
+        assert prompt._control_slice == original._control_slice
+
     def test_template_without_a_separator_uses_content_positions(self) -> None:
         tokenizer = _fast_tokenizer(chat_template="{{ messages[0]['content'] }}{{ messages[1]['content'] }}")
         prompt = AttackPrompt(goal="Say it", target="done", tokenizer=tokenizer, control_init="!")