From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishset the paceset the pacea) SPEEDif a company sets the pace, it does something before its competitors or to a better standardset the pace in Japanese firms have been setting the pace in electronic engineering. b) DSO (also set a brisk/cracking etc pace British English) to go faster than the other competitors in a race, who then try to achieve the same speed The Italians set the pace for the first eight laps. → pace
Examples from the Corpus
pace in• Britain set the pace in the first half of the nineteenth century.• They've got stronger since then and have set the pace in the championship race this season.• The two sides are among a group of clubs setting the pace in the Bord Gais National League with four points apiece. 