The Shell-Ducati Team’s scheduled three-day off-season test at the Spanish Jerez circuit proved to be a troublesome event, but the team took them in stride and heads into MotoGP’s winter test ban with information that will be helpful as engineers do their development work on the 2013 Desmosedici.

The first two days of the test was sunny, but cold, allowing Nicky Hayden to complete a full testing program on Wednesday and to post competitive lap times on Thursday, though a small crash robbed him of riding time when the track was at its best.

On Friday, rain and wind made gathering much meaningful data impossible, though Nicky did a brief comparison between hard and soft rain tires.

“Things didn’t go as smoothly as we had hoped, but the test has been useful despite everything,” Hayden said.

“On the first day, we struggled a little bit getting up to speed, but we improved somewhat yesterday. We were able to evaluate the new frame and swingarm, as well as a few new settings.

Today, though, the weather hasn’t been kind to us. I did three exits in the wet, but it hasn’t been dry enough for slicks. It would have been nice to ride in the dry today, as we wanted to confirm a few things and improve our pace, but nonetheless, we got through some things and have a lot of information to work with. Thanks to the guys for all the hard work this year. Now we’ll look forward to February at Sepang,” Hayden added.

Unfortunately, new Ducati Team rider Andrea Dovizioso managed to turn just three laps on day one before he was forced to the garage with a strained neck that kept him off the bike for the remainder of the test.

The Ducati Team now begins an obligatory two-month break from testing, after which they will return to action at Malaysia’s Sepang International Circuit, where MotoGP’s first test of 2013 will take place Feb. 5-7.