diff --git a/superset/sql_lab.py b/superset/sql_lab.py
index 8e2cafcd9..a2732d17c 100644
--- a/superset/sql_lab.py
+++ b/superset/sql_lab.py
@@ -14,10 +14,16 @@ import sqlalchemy
 from sqlalchemy.orm import sessionmaker
 from sqlalchemy.pool import NullPool
 
-from superset import app, dataframe, db, results_backend, security_manager, utils
+from superset import app, dataframe, db, results_backend, security_manager
 from superset.models.sql_lab import Query
 from superset.sql_parse import SupersetQuery
-from superset.utils import get_celery_app, QueryStatus
+from superset.utils import (
+    get_celery_app,
+    json_iso_dttm_ser,
+    now_as_float,
+    QueryStatus,
+    zlib_compress,
+)
 
 config = app.config
 celery_app = get_celery_app(config)
@@ -103,7 +109,7 @@ def execute_sql(
     if store_results and start_time:
         # only asynchronous queries
         stats_logger.timing(
-            'sqllab.query.time_pending', utils.now_as_float() - start_time)
+            'sqllab.query.time_pending', now_as_float() - start_time)
     query = get_query(query_id, session)
     payload = dict(query_id=query_id)
 
@@ -160,7 +166,7 @@ def execute_sql(
 
     query.executed_sql = executed_sql
     query.status = QueryStatus.RUNNING
-    query.start_running_time = utils.now_as_float()
+    query.start_running_time = now_as_float()
     session.merge(query)
     session.commit()
     logging.info("Set query to 'running'")
@@ -175,7 +181,7 @@ def execute_sql(
         cursor = conn.cursor()
         logging.info('Running query: \n{}'.format(executed_sql))
         logging.info(query.executed_sql)
-        query_start_time = utils.now_as_float()
+        query_start_time = now_as_float()
         db_engine_spec.execute(cursor, query.executed_sql, async_=True)
         logging.info('Handling cursor')
         db_engine_spec.handle_cursor(cursor, query, session)
@@ -183,7 +189,7 @@ def execute_sql(
         data = db_engine_spec.fetch_data(cursor, query.limit)
         stats_logger.timing(
             'sqllab.query.time_executing_query',
-            utils.now_as_float() - query_start_time)
+            now_as_float() - query_start_time)
     except SoftTimeLimitExceeded as e:
         logging.exception(e)
         if conn is not None:
@@ -203,7 +209,7 @@ def execute_sql(
         conn.commit()
         conn.close()
 
-    if query.status == utils.QueryStatus.STOPPED:
+    if query.status == QueryStatus.STOPPED:
         return handle_error('The query has been stopped')
 
     cdf = dataframe.SupersetDataFrame(data, cursor_description, db_engine_spec)
@@ -219,7 +225,7 @@ def execute_sql(
                 schema=database.force_ctas_schema,
                 show_cols=False,
                 latest_partition=False))
-    query.end_time = utils.now_as_float()
+    query.end_time = now_as_float()
     session.merge(query)
     session.flush()
 
@@ -232,17 +238,17 @@ def execute_sql(
     if store_results:
         key = '{}'.format(uuid.uuid4())
         logging.info('Storing results in results backend, key: {}'.format(key))
-        write_to_results_backend_start = utils.now_as_float()
+        write_to_results_backend_start = now_as_float()
         json_payload = json.dumps(
-            payload, default=utils.json_iso_dttm_ser, ignore_nan=True)
+            payload, default=json_iso_dttm_ser, ignore_nan=True)
         cache_timeout = database.cache_timeout
         if cache_timeout is None:
             cache_timeout = config.get('CACHE_DEFAULT_TIMEOUT', 0)
-        results_backend.set(key, utils.zlib_compress(json_payload), cache_timeout)
+        results_backend.set(key, zlib_compress(json_payload), cache_timeout)
         query.results_key = key
         stats_logger.timing(
             'sqllab.query.results_backend_write',
-            utils.now_as_float() - write_to_results_backend_start)
+            now_as_float() - write_to_results_backend_start)
     session.merge(query)
     session.commit()