EPQ Results failure

I did EPQ this year and I worked incredibly hard on it, spending hours a week, following all the advice I could find, not skipping out on ANYTHING that was required. I did very well and when I submitted my project to my teacher she told me that she marked it as a high A* grade, almost full marks.
However, the project had to go through moderation, and other teachers marked it and I got downgraded to an A (two marks off an A* judging by last year's boundaries).
The reason for this is because last year, they gave one of their students an A* grade and when AQA moderated it, it came back as a C grade project! Therefore, they're being really careful this year and marking each project down (their words) so that AQA can't pull them up on anything.

Whilst I understand their thought process and I don't like to whine, I find this really unfair seeing as I think my work deserved an A*! Surely they should mark projects by what they DESERVE, not play it safe because of their own mistakes last year. Is there anything I can do to change this result? I need an A* to lower my uni offer next year and the results haven't been sent off the AQA to moderate yet, so I don't know what to do.

Why are they no submitting it as a grade A?

They are I think! I'm not angry with an A grade by any means but I do think my work deserved an A* and so did the other teachers who marked it. It might be open to change but I doubt it.

They are allowed some latitude in their grades - they must have been way out last year! Is yours being submitted as the best or part of the random sample?