pole position
4
5.3
- noun
:
posición de privilegio
- Trip Murphy, star of the season, will lead the field to the green flag from pole position.
- won the pole position
- starting from pole position
- took pole position
He's been fighting for the odd podium or pole position for five years now.
- He's been fighting for the odd podium or pole position for five years now.
Examples
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Now she was in the pole position.
Fiction book (2001) -
The first-ever Austin F1 qualifying session is over, and Sebastian Vettel has edged out Lewis Hamilton by one tenth of a second to take the pole position.
Blog text (17) -
His fourth pole position of the season.
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Two more laps to go in the battle for the pole position!
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Nico scored his maiden Formula One pole position this afternoon, with an advantage of over half a second.
Blog text (23) -
Beau Brandenburg is starting on the pole position today.
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If nobody goes any faster this afternoon, the Ferrari will be in pole position... for tomorrow's French Grand Prix.
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Starting from pole position, he took the chequered flag with a 20-second margin over the second-placed car, achieving his first win in Formula One.
Blog text (23) -
James' real victory came one year after his accident when he returned to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway to become the fastest car on track, and take the pole position for the 100th running of the Indianapolis 500.
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Beau Brandenburg is starting from pole position today, giving him the best chance to win the race.
Antonyms
How Favorable
Surface Forms
Morphology
The parts 'pole' (an extreme/end) and 'position' (order or ranking) give a clue that this refers to a special or extreme place in an ordering, so a learner might infer it denotes a notable spot in the starting order. However, the specific technical sense—'the very front/most favorable starting spot in a race, awarded to the fastest qualifier'—is jargon of motorsport and not fully predictable from the constituents, so the expression is only partially transparent.
Etymology
The phrase pole position may come from early car races where the fastest driver started next to a pole that marked the front of the track. Being beside that pole gave a clear advantage, so pole position came to mean 'the most favorable starting place' in a race.