Hamilton completed 18 laps behind the wheel of Mercedes' new F1 W05 car, which was officially unveiled on Tuesday, and recorded a best time of one minute 27.820 seconds before flying into the tyre wall at turn one.
Mercedes subsequently revealed that a front-wing failure caused Hamilton's car to leave the track, and the Englishman was keen to reflect instead on a productive day in Spain.
"It's an incredibly positive start to be the first car out on track and completing a good number of laps," he said.
"Other teams have been going out for single-lap runs, starting a few hours after we had first hit the track, so to have started running through our test programme was very encouraging.
"The car feels quite good, especially considering it’s so early in our programme, so overall it’s been a positive day.
"Of course, it's unfortunate to end the day early when everyone has worked so hard and we had looked like easily completing the most mileage of anyone here (on Tuesday), but we'll make that track-time back and it's better to have these things happen now than in Melbourne (where the opening race of the season will be held in March)."
Hamilton posted the second-fastest time in testing despite his crash, with Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen leading the way.