diff --git a/.gitlab-ci.yml b/.gitlab-ci.yml
index 165d1eae72a7797d50e9a0fe399e78ad286c2f74..647a1617918dcf845480f46302ddf0b62856e9b5 100644
--- a/.gitlab-ci.yml
+++ b/.gitlab-ci.yml
@@ -42,6 +42,7 @@ build-my-rbase:
     STAGE_NAME: "my-rbase"
   script:
     - docker login -u "$CI_REGISTRY_USER" -p "$CI_REGISTRY_PASSWORD" $CI_REGISTRY
+    - if [ "$R_VERSION" == "latest" ]; then export R_VERSION_PATH_TAG="v-latest"; else export R_VERSION_PATH_TAG=$R_VERSION; exit
     # pull the previous stage
     - docker pull "$CI_REGISTRY_IMAGE/$CI_COMMIT_REF_SLUG/my-base:latest"
     # pull the latest build of the target R version in order to re-use it
@@ -54,12 +55,12 @@ build-my-rbase:
       --cache-from "$CI_REGISTRY_IMAGE/$CI_COMMIT_REF_SLUG:$R_VERSION"
       --cache-from "$CI_REGISTRY_IMAGE:$R_VERSION"
       --build-arg R_VERSION
-      --tag "$CI_REGISTRY_IMAGE/$CI_COMMIT_REF_SLUG/${STAGE_NAME}/${R_VERSION}:$CI_COMMIT_SHA"
+      --tag "$CI_REGISTRY_IMAGE/$CI_COMMIT_REF_SLUG/${STAGE_NAME}/${R_VERSION_PATH_TAG}:$CI_COMMIT_SHA"
       --file Dockerfile
       --target ${STAGE_NAME}
       ./
     # push image tagged with its versions
-    - docker push "$CI_REGISTRY_IMAGE/$CI_COMMIT_REF_SLUG/${STAGE_NAME}/${R_VERSION}:$CI_COMMIT_SHA"
+    - docker push "$CI_REGISTRY_IMAGE/$CI_COMMIT_REF_SLUG/${STAGE_NAME}/${R_VERSION_PATH_TAG}:$CI_COMMIT_SHA"
   parallel:
     matrix:
       - R_VERSION: ["3.6.3", "4.2.3", "latest"]