Remained top, affected to be superior (11)
I believe the answer is:
predominate
'be superior' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'remained top affected' is the wordplay.
'affected' indicates an anagram.
'remained'+'top'='remainedtop'
'remainedtop' with letters rearranged gives 'PREDOMINATE'.
'to' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for predominate that I've seen before include "Be superior" , "Be the main element" , "be in control" , "Exert the strongest power" , "rule" .)