The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 4 plus 8 letter word POLE POSITION
I've seen this crossword clue in Financial Times
P
O
L
E
P
O
S
I
T
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O
N
More clues leading to the result POLE POSITION
- Staff backing work protest, gathering round leader's place
- Central European with job — good place to start
- One tip: pool is fantastic—a great place to start
- East European place much preferred by drivers
- Best place to begin training pilot with no poise
- Where a dancer and driver may be found
- Here’s the best place to start on grid
- North or South, it’s the best place to start from
- Advantageous situation for European with attitude
- On top of the world getting the perfect start at Silverstone
Buddy explains!
The cryptic/wordplay part
In cryptic crossword there's often an wordplay/cryptic part as well.This part involves a more complex hint, such as an anagram, homophone, hidden word, etc.
Sadly, We don't have an explanation for this specific crossword clue yet.