diff --git a/ci/dra_common.sh b/ci/dra_common.sh
index d789237cb30..5e4d769d630 100755
--- a/ci/dra_common.sh
+++ b/ci/dra_common.sh
@@ -11,7 +11,11 @@ function save_docker_tarballs {
     local arch="${1:?architecture required}"
     local version="${2:?stack-version required}"
     for image in logstash logstash-oss logstash-ubi8; do
-        docker save "docker.elastic.co/logstash/${image}:${version}" | gzip -c > "build/${image}-${version}-docker-image-${arch}.tar.gz"
+        docker save -o "build/${image}-${version}-docker-image-${arch}.tar" \
+            "docker.elastic.co/logstash/${image}:${version}" || \
+            error "Hit a problem in saving the Docker image for ${image}"
+        # NOTE: if docker save exited with non-zero the error log already exited the script
+        gzip "build/${image}-${version}-docker-image-${arch}.tar"
     done
 }